Surgical mask partition reduces the risk of non-contact transmission in a golden Syrian hamster model for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Shuofeng Yuan, Anna Jinxia Zhang, Vincent Kwok-Man Poon, Chris Chung-Sing Chan, Andrew Chak-Yiu Lee, Zhimeng Fan, Can Li, Ronghui Liang, Jianli Cao ... Show moreAuthor Notes
Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciaa644, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa644
Published: 30 May 2020
Abstract
Background
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is believed to be mostly transmitted by medium-to-large sized respiratory droplets although airborne transmission is theoretically possible in healthcare settings involving aerosol-generating procedures. Exposure to respiratory droplets can theoretically be reduced by surgical mask usage. However, there is a lack of experimental evidence supporting surgical mask usage for prevention of COVID-19.