Masking up is now part of Kiwis’ everyday lives but as restrictions are relaxed, are the masks being used enough to protect against Delta?
In Austria and Germany cloth masks have been banned in public places like shops and public transport in favour of surgical options.
Aerosol chemist at the University of Auckland Joel Rindelaub says surgical masks will provide more protection than most cloth options.
“The material that [surgical masks] are made out of is polypropylene,” aerosol chemist at the University of Auckland Joel Rindelaub said.
“That will do a better job of filtering out those tiny little aerosol particles, but with cloth masks they're not going to be quite as good.”
When the Government started mandating mask use in August last year the advice was any face covering is better than none, but epidemiologist Michael Baker says Delta has changed the game.
“We do need guidance from the Government in terms of what standards are required,” Baker said.
Baker says cloth masks are still acceptable as long as they’re high quality and have three layers, but it needs to be made clear that some types of face coverings are no longer suitable, like masks with valves as well as bandannas and gaiters.
“You can't just wrap a scarf around your face and say that'll do, that's not good enough.”
“There's also interesting work coming out on medical masks that if they're carefully washed you can use them ten times.”
Some hospitals in New Zealand have a policy of surgical masks only for visitors but that is as far as it goes currently.
On Monday, the Government announced compulsory mask use in high schools during Alert Level 3 but some principals such as Amy Hacker at Paeroa College say they want to see surgical masks provided if their area goes up a level again.
“The cloth masks, even in the best case scenario, aren't ideal because of issues around the way that they're worn and laundering them.”
Rindelaub says he’s also like to see surgical masks in use in places like high schools.
“I would love to see more accessible masks for everyone that wants them.
"If we can have these surgical varieties available in schools where of course you're going to be indoors with low ventilation in a high risk environment with a lot of people, that would be a great location to make good use of them.”
There are environmental concerns about single use options which are creating tonnes of waste globally but Rindelaub argued there was more at stake.
“I would definitely say the benefits outweigh the costs especially when it comes to our own personal health and the health of the community.”
Baker believes vaccination and better use of masks combined could still see New Zealand return to elimination status.
“Because this virus is so infectious, and the vaccines are not quite good enough yet to create herd immunity, we need to do other things as well.
“If everyone is wearing a mask in indoor environments and doing some other basic things, that’s enough to actually stop the virus circulating and combined, it may even be enough to eliminate the virus if we do all of these things right.”
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