Wearing masks in hospitals may have had no impact on COVID-19 transmission during the Omicron wave, a new study reveals. Mask-wearing became part of the essential control measures to stop COVID-19 running riot throughout the pandemic.
But the latest data hints that it may not be as beneficial as people previously thought when fighting against the variant. The team undertook the study in St George’s Hospital, a large hospital in south-west London, during the first ten months of the Omicron wave between December 2021 and September 2022.
In the NHS, a mask mandate for staff was introduced in June 2020, specifying the use of type IIR, fluid-resistant surgical face masks by all staff and visitors. The NHS mask mandate remained in place in clinical areas in hospitals until June 2022.
