Study says 100% face mask use could crush second, third Covid-19 wave
We’ve all heard it many times: Wear a face covering — indoors, outdoors, on trains and buses. At work, in the supermarket and at church.
But now a new modeling study out of Cambridge and Greenwich universities suggests that face masks may be even more important than originally thought in preventing future outbreaks of the new coronavirus.
To ward off resurgences, the reproduction number for the virus (the average number of people who will contract it from one infected person) needs to drop below 1.0. Researchers don’t believe that’s achievable with lockdowns alone. However, a combination of lockdowns and widespread mask compliance might do the trick, they say.
“We show that, when face masks are used by the public all the time (not just from when symptoms first appear), the effective reproduction number, Re, can be decreased below 1, leading to the mitigation of epidemic spread,” the scientists wrote in the paper published Wednesday by the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. [Continue reading…]
Two hair stylists in Missouri interacted with a total of 140 clients and six coworkers before learning they both had COVID-19 — thankfully, the stylists didn’t pass the virus on to any of these contacts, according to a statement from the local health department.
The stylists work at a Great Clips salon in Springfield, where various safety measures were put in place to mitigate potential COVID-19 spread, according to the statement from the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. Appointment times had been staggered to limit potential contamination between customers, and the salon chairs were placed farther apart than usual. Stylists also remained 6 feet (1.8 meters) away from clients when not cutting their hair, and the salon required that both stylists and customers wear masks during appointments, according to Great Clips customer and journalist Steve Pokin, who wrote about his experience visiting the salon in mid-May. [Continue reading…]