It’s February 27th, 2020 and chances are you are reading this because of the recent Corona Virus (COVID-19) Outbreak. The question on everyone’s mind is do you need a face mask whilst traveling and will it prevent you from catching this contagious disease?
The Corona Virus started in the city of Wuhan, China in the now infamous wet market ; filled with bats, snakes, rats and dogs amongst other sold for human consumption. Wet markets have been notorious in China for their breeding of zoonotic disease or a disease originating from animals and passed to humans with diseases such as lyme disease, rabies and malaria to name a few.
Zoonotic diseases have been known throughout history to have extremely high mortality rates and often at the first sight of outbreak, cures are far from immediate – as of now with no cure available the same can be said for the Corona Virus.
As of February the coronavirus is a full blown pandemic, since imploding in China it has gone on to infect over 30 countries as of now, with the biggest next to Asia being Italy with over 200 confirmed cases.
For instance, Northern Italy is currently under lockdown with a mandated quarantine which has affected everyday life immensely. Public arenas such as football games, religious activities and social gatherings have all been cancelled until the outbreak is hopefully contained.
As far as the global scale there are currently 39,383 cases resulting in 2,858 deaths and 43,995 new cases with 8,099 patients in serious or critical condition with these numbers showing sign of stopping.
With cases on a significant rise daily, traveling – especially in airports – or any self contained spaces have been a test tube for the disease. The CDC has warned that the corona virus will spread throughout all of America and as much as 75% off the United States could eventually grapple with the virus.
As far as the global scale there are currently 39,383 cases resulting in 2,858 deaths and 43,995 new cases with 8,099 patients in serious or critical condition with these numbers showing sign of stopping.
With cases on a significant rise daily, traveling – especially in airports – or any self contained spaces have been a test tube for the disease. The CDC has warned that the corona virus will spread throughout all of America and as much as 75% off the United States could eventually grapple with the virus.
Typical surgical masks will not prevent the spread of the virus as as they only used to prevent the spread if you are the infected; they will not protect you from getting infected from other people. However medical practitioners recommend N95 masks as the are known to block 95% of airborne particles and are used by professionals to prevent the spread of disease.
Due to the increasing demand for the N95, supplies are extremely limited.