Bulletin 39 | Nicola Oliver
The use of facemasks by the general public for personal and wider protection has been recommended in many countries. Some countries impose fines for non-compliance.
This bulletin reviews the current evidence-base for mask wearing by the public in an effort to keep R below 1. Most of the evidence points in the same direction: mask wearing reduces person-to-person transmission and could form part of a strategy that reduces the risk of transmission from asymptomatic carriers and potentially reducing viral load on the uninfected.