Masks significantly reduce infection risk, says new study

Requiring the wearing of masks in areas at the epicentre of the global coronavirus pandemic may have prevented tens of thousands of infections, a new study suggests.

Mask-wearing is even more important for preventing the virus's spread and the sometimes deadly COVID-19 illness it causes than social distancing and stay-at-home orders, researchers said, in the study published in PNAS: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.