As the Covid-19 cases are increasing at a rapid rate, experts have advised to follow the practice of ‘double masking’ to keep Covid at bay. Double masking is when you layer one mask over the other. Experts and health officials claim that this has the potential to limit the exposure to the virus-carrying aerosols. Besides the double masking method, they have also encouraged to wear masks even at home.
It is known that N95 masks are the standard ones to use but they create a lot of issues such as difficulty in breathing, inadequate oxygen supply, and extra costs due to which people are often hesitant to buy them. The Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and health experts have come up with an alternative to N95 and that is double masking to prevent the exposure to Covid virus.
However, most of the people do not know how to use this method and what are the effective types of masks that can be combined for double masking. It is suggested to wear a normal cloth mask over a surgical mask. Normal cloth mask and surgical mask only have the ability to block 51.4 per cent and 56.1 per cent of the aerosol particles respectively. But researchers have found that 85.4 per cent of aerosols can be blocked by double fitted masks.
However, individuals must ensure that the surgical and the cloth masks are together worn tightly. The CDC says about this, “effectiveness of cloth and medical masks can be improved by ensuring that they are well fitted to the contours of the face to prevent leakage of air around the masks’ edges”.
CDC conducted extensive research this January to see the effectiveness between normal double masking and using only cloth masks. The experiment on double masking inferred that on wearing double masks, the chances of exposure to aerosols were reduced by 95.9 per cent.
The CDC also highlighted the method to use both the masks. It pointed out, ” fitting a cloth mask over a medical procedure mask or knotting the ear loops of a surgical mask and then tucking in and flattening the extra material close to the face, substantially reduced the exposure for the wearer.”
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