The emergence of new Covid-19 variants and a highly uneven vaccine rollout have put mask mandates back on the policy agenda. This column presents new evidence that state-level mask mandates reduced new weekly COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions, and deaths significantly in the US. The results imply that 87,000 lives were saved up until 19 December 2020, while an additional 58,000 lives could have been saved if all states had put in place a mandate starting in April 2020. Mask mandates had a greater effect in counties more positively inclined towards mask wearing.
Alexander Karaivanov, Shih En Lu, Hitoshi Shigeoka, 09 October 2020
The mandatory wearing of face masks remains a contentious policy issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. This column evaluates the impact of mask mandates on the spread of COVID-19 in Canada, using the different timings that masks were mandated across the 34 health districts of the province of Ontario. Mask mandates are associated with a 25% or larger weekly reduction in new COVID-19 cases in July and August, relative to the absence of mandates. Requiring indoor masks nationwide in early July could have reduced new COVID-19 cases in Canada by 25%–40% in mid-August, which translates into between 700 and 1,100 fewer cases per week.
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