As Omicron spreads rapidly across the world, there is a race to fight it on multiple fronts. These include preparing the health infrastructure, imposing curbs to ensure social distancing and making sure people wear masks. Of all these measures, authorities have laid the greatest emphasis on wearing masks – the layered the better. But the Omicron variant is so virulent that it is said to get past the cloth mask easily. Health experts have suggested that beating Omicron would require a combination of steps by everyone, including wearing a surgical or N95 mask.
To understand how masks work to shield you from the virus, a graphic prepared by the Wall Street Journal is now being widely circulated online. The graphic shows the levels of protection different masks offer.
For instance, if a person with Omicron is not wearing a mask and comes into contact with a non-infected person, who is also not wearing a mask, the infection is likely to transmit from the first to the second in just 15 minutes. If both the persons wear cloth masks, then Omicron will transfer from infected to the not-infected within 27 minutes.
In the case of surgical masks, the time taken for virus transmission increases to one hour. However, if both are wearing the N95 mask, then the virus will take 25 hours to transmit from the infected person to the one, so far, not infected. The graphic also said that tightly sealed N95s, where only 1 percent of particles enter the facepiece, will provide 2,500 hours of protection.
Most of the recent guidelines by health authorities across the world are recommending people to wear masks with two or more layers of washable, breathing fabric. People should ensure that the masks fit them well and do not leave space for particles to easily enter the facepiece.