IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i7p3666-d528100.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effectiveness of Face Coverings in Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Olukayode James Ayodeji

    (Department of Environmental Toxicology, The Institute of Environmental and Human Health, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79416, USA)

  • Seshadri Ramkumar

    (Department of Environmental Toxicology, The Institute of Environmental and Human Health, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79416, USA)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the biggest public health challenges of the 21st century. Many prevalent measures have been taken to prevent its spread and protect the public. However, the use of face coverings as an effective preventive measure remains contentious. The goal of the current study is to evaluate the effectiveness of face coverings as a protective measure. We examined the effectiveness of face coverings between 1 April and 31 December 2020. This was accomplished by analyzing trends of daily new COVID-19 cases, cumulative confirmed cases, and cases per 100,000 people in different U.S. states, including the District of Columbia. The results indicated a sharp change in trends after face covering mandates. For the 32 states with face covering mandates, 63% and 66% exhibited a downward trend in confirmed cases within 21 and 28 days of implementation, respectively. We estimated that face covering mandates in the 32 states prevented approximately 78,571 and 109,703 cases within 21- and 28-day periods post face covering mandate, respectively. A statistically significant ( p = 0.001) negative correlation (−0.54) was observed between the rate of cases and days since the adoption of a face covering mandate. We concluded that the use of face coverings can provide necessary protection if they are properly used.

Suggested Citation

  • Olukayode James Ayodeji & Seshadri Ramkumar, 2021. "Effectiveness of Face Coverings in Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-11, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:7:p:3666-:d:528100
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3666/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3666/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aroon Chande & Seolha Lee & Mallory Harris & Quan Nguyen & Stephen J. Beckett & Troy Hilley & Clio Andris & Joshua S. Weitz, 2020. "Real-time, interactive website for US-county-level COVID-19 event risk assessment," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(12), pages 1313-1319, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stipic, Dorian & Bradac, Mislav & Lipic, Tomislav & Podobnik, Boris, 2021. "Effects of quarantine disobedience and mobility restrictions on COVID-19 pandemic waves in dynamical networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Myles Ingram & Ashley Zahabian & Chin Hur, 2021. "Prediction of COVID-19 Social Distancing Adherence (SoDA) on the United States county-level," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-7, December.
    3. Francesco Furno, 2020. "The Testing Multiplier: Fear vs Containment," Papers 2012.03834, arXiv.org.
    4. Jinat Ara & Cecilia Sik-Lanyi, 2022. "Investigation of COVID-19 Vaccine Information Websites across Europe and Asia Using Automated Accessibility Protocols," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-45, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:7:p:3666-:d:528100. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.