KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 – Khairy Jamaluddin today recommended that people wear high-quality face masks like the N95 or KF94, or to don a cloth mask on top of a surgical mask.
The health minister said the government has sent four cloth masks to all bottom 40 per cent (B40) households, urging Malaysians to wear those face coverings on top of the masks they used to wear previously.
“That offers quite good protection also, but where possible of course, employers should provide employees with the better-quality mask,” Khairy told a press conference today.
“Masks are important. Good-quality masks of course help a lot in cutting transmission.”
A real-world study published by the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last Friday found that wearing well-fitted N95 and KN95 respirator masks indoors could cut the odds of testing positive for Covid-19 by 83 per cent, compared to 66 per cent for surgical masks and 56 per cent for cloth masks.
N95 masks can filter both large droplets and the smaller aerosols that may contain the airborne virus. N95s are also especially efficient, filtering out about 95 per cent of airborne particles.
