It’s been more than a month since England’s last remaining Covid restrictions were scrapped, including the wearing of face masks in indoor public spaces.
This week Wales has followed suit, dropping its mask-wearing mandates in shops and on public transport.
Life is slowly going back to normal and as more of us are commuting to work, it’s not uncommon to be in the minority on a bus, train or tube if you are still wearing a face mask.
Lots of people have stopped wearing them – so it is worth wearing yours if other people aren’t? The short answer is yes, because it reduces the risk of Covid transmission in both directions, at a time when cases are still high.
While Covid cases have dropped by 3.3% in the past week, totalling 587,721 in the seven days up to March 28, deaths attributed to Covid increased by 198 (or 26.8%) to 950 in the same period, according to official government figures.
As Professor Paul Hunter, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of East Anglia, sums it up: “Wearing a mask does reduce the risk of transmission of Covid both if the wearer is not infected but in an environment with other infected people, and if they themselves are infected and may spread the infection to others.”
If you need more convincing, here are three reasons why masks matter.
Masks still protect people, particularly the most vulnerable
Prof Hunter previously told HuffPost UK that you should especially consider wearing a mask around those who are vulnerable.
“What I would say is that if you are in a vulnerable group and are going into a crowded indoor environment then it is sensible to still wear one [if] Covid is common in the community, at least whilst infection rates are high,” he says.
“Also if you are visiting a very vulnerable individual indoors when Covid is common in the community then I would wear one for their protection, even though I have been fully vaccinated.”
Older and medically more vulnerably people who’ve not yet had an infection are at higher risk of severe disease, Prof Hunter adds, especially if their booster was more than three months ago.
“I would encourage them to wear masks whenever in indoor crowded environments,” he says.
Face masks also reduce Covid risk for the wearer
Professor Trisha Greenhalgh of the University of Oxford previously told HuffPost that wearing a well-fitting mask indoors “definitely protects other people from one’s own germs”, with studies highlighting that it reduces viral emissions from coughing and sneezing about 20-fold.
“It would also be expected to protect the wearer to some extent (for example by reducing the amount of virus that you breathe in, thereby producing an asymptomatic or mild illness rather than a severe one),” she said.
As early as July 2020, a study from the University of Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science found face masks and coverings, were effective in reducing the spread of Covid-19 for the wearer as well as those around them
ONS data collected in September 2021 found that people who didn’t wear face coverings in confined spaces were actually one and a half times more likely to test positive for coronavirus than those who used a mask.
It’s the single best thing we can do reduce spread
Face masks are the single most effective precaution the public can take against the spread of Covid, according to a major review of international research.
A team of researchers from Monash University in Australia and the University of Edinburgh looked at the findings of more than 30 studies from around the world and concluded that mask wearing led to a 53% reduction in the incidence of Covid, while social distancing measures led to a 25% reduction.