New Delhi: Researchers in China have claimed that wearing face masks at home is an effective way to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
In a recent study, the researchers have found that wearing face masks at home is 79 per cent effective at preventing coronavirus spread among family members in the same household.
Researchers conducted survey of 460 people from 124 families in Beijing between late February and late March about their households during the pandemic.
Each family had one confirmed case of coronavirus. The average family had four people, and most families had three generations, the study found.
Most person-to-person transmission occurred within households, it stated.
Wearing face masks in the same house was 79% effective at preventing transmission, but only before symptoms emerge, it further said.
Wearing masks really wasn’t protective after the symptoms started.
The daily use of chlorine or ethanol-based disinfectant was 77% effective at curbing transmission in the household, the study added.
“This study confirms the highest risk of household transmission being prior to symptom onset, but that precautionary [non-pharmaceutical interventions], such as mask use, disinfection and social distancing in households can prevent COVID-19 transmission during the pandemic,” said a statement from BMJ Global health, the medical journal that published the study.