Experts suggest that social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands should be continued along with vaccines to protect people from Covid-19.
Researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing and evaluating the effectiveness of global public health measures in reducing the spread of Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, and Covid-19 mortality.
This peer-reviewed paper published in the British Medical Journal reviewed 72 studies, of which 35 evaluated individual public health measures and 37 evaluated multiple public health measures.
Of the 35 individual measurement studies, 34 were observational studies and 1 was a randomized controlled trial.
Researchers found that in eight of the 35 studies, the incidence of Covid-19 decreased by 53% after wearing a mask, while maintaining social distancing decreased by 25%.
Hand washing also showed a 53% reduction in the incidence of Covid-19, but the author said that after adjusting for a few studies, this is not statistically significant.
At the same time, due to differences in research design, outcome measures, and quality, it is said that other measures (such as lockdowns, border closures, schools, and workplaces) cannot be analyzed in detail.
They added that these measures need to be further evaluated so that the potential negative impact on the general population can be weighed against any positive results.
The researchers said that although the Covid-19 vaccine has been proven to be safe, effective and life-saving, most vaccines do not provide 100% protection and do not know how the vaccine will prevent the spread of different variants in the future.
“Before achieving herd immunity against Covid-19, regardless of the proven high vaccination rate, public health prevention strategies may still be the first choice for disease prevention, especially in places where the Covid-19 vaccination rate is low,” Australia Mo Said Dr. Stella Talic, the lead author of Nash University.
At the end of the study, she added: “Current evidence from quantitative analysis shows that washing hands, wearing masks and keeping body distance are beneficial in reducing the incidence of Covid-19.
“After achieving sufficient vaccination coverage, further research is needed to assess the effectiveness of public health measures. Further control of the Covid-19 pandemic may not only depend on high vaccination coverage and its effectiveness, but also on continued Adhere to effective and sustainable public health measures.”
The research was conducted by researchers from Monash University and Torrance University in Australia, Edinburgh University in Scotland and Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou. China
