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A new study has shown that in places where state and local governments require the use of a mask, fewer people end up in hospital with coronavirus. A second showed that students, at least, would wear masks overwhelmingly if there is a mandate in place.
Hospitalization growth rates fell 5.5 percentage points among 18- to 64-year-olds at sites in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York , from Ohio and Oregon, the team said in the CDC’s Weekly Report. .
The sites began to see a significant drop in hospitalization rates among those 40 to 64 years of age less than three weeks after the warrants were implemented. Beyond three weeks, the decreases were observed among 18 to 64 year olds.
“Because COVID-19 can lead to prolonged illness and require long-term treatment, the expected savings associated with lower hospitalization rates could be much greater than these reduced hospital costs associated with COVID-19,” said they wrote.
The team noted that the study did not control for other factors that might have affected hospitalization rates.
But they said their findings support community masking to reduce transmission and hospitalization of Covid-19, noting that the practice likely has a direct effect on coronavirus-related illness and death.
States and jurisdictions have individually implemented mask mandates at different times during the coronavirus pandemic. President-elect Joe Biden’s first executive order after taking office last month was to require the use of a mask on federal property. He later extended the mandate to most modes of public transportation.
In an effort to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus on campus, some universities have also told their students and professors that they must wear masks.
University mask mandates
The correct use of the mask varied depending on the type of mask worn. People who wore N95-type masks, cloth masks or surgical masks wore their mask correctly more than 90% of the time. People wearing bandanas, scarves, or similar masks wore their masks correctly just under 80% of the time.
The CDC team watched and recorded over 17,000 people in universities and surrounding communities who made it mandatory to use a mask indoors and use a mask outdoors when the social distance could not be achieved.
They found that the use of masks was “significantly more common indoors than outdoors” at these universities. Over 90% of people wore some form of face covering on the inside. That number fell to 67% outside.
People were slightly more docile on campus. The off-campus indoor mask use resulted in on-campus indoor mask use of just four percentage points, but remained above 90% in both environments.
The team suggests that universities conduct their own observational research on mask compliance to improve their security messages and policies.
“These data prove that respect for the mandates of university masks is high,” the researchers wrote. “Mask warrants have been shown to decrease the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 cases, and the widespread use of masks is an essential intervention to stem the COVID-19 pandemic.
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