Many travellers have bemoaned having to wear a mask for an entire flight but it does reduce the chance of spreading Covid, a study has confirmed.
Chinese scientists created a simulation of how drops of water would spread in the cabins of passenger planes using real-world examples.
One was an almost 12 hour flight from London Heathrow to Hanoi in March 2020, where passengers were mostly mask-free, and the other was a five-and-a-half hour flight from Singapore to Hangzhou in January 2020 where masks were worn.
The researchers tested the spread of droplets by talking and coughing.
The computer model was then applied to predict who would be infected, with an accuracy of over 80 percent compared to real-world flight.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University team calculated that the number of Covid-infected passengers would be reduced from 12 to 1 if they all used surgical masks during the London-Hanoi flight.
An investigation revealed that one of the passengers on the Singapore-Hangzhou flight had reportedly contracted the virus after he reportedly loosened his mask and began to talk to others. This was something which the researchers said could have contributed to the spread of the disease.
Although mask mandates are no longer mandatory in the UK they continue to be compulsory for the entire duration of flight since the return of air travel.
Some passengers have raised concerns about their safety and asked for them to be removed so they can eat and drink onboard.
But study author Professor Dayi Lai said the latest research confirmed masks make a ‘significant difference’.
Study simulated transmission of Covid virus drops from passengers on flights from London to Hanoi to Singapore. The results were then compared to real people who have been infected. Red indicates a Covid-positive passenger. Orange is for infected travellers. Yellow refers to those who were not affected by the disease. A purple mark indicates an infected passenger.
Study results showed that wearing masks while on flights did not reduce the chance of Covid being spread to other people. Conversations were also reduced.
Dr Lai said: ‘We are very pleased to see that our model validated by experimental data can achieve such a high accuracy in predicting COVID-19 transmission in airliner cabins.’
‘Also, it’s important to know that wearing masks makes a significant impact on reducing the transmission.’
Indoor Air published the results of this study.
Researchers developed a computer program to predict how far drops from people talking, breathing and coughing would travel on an airplane.
The researchers used data from the influenza virus research to assess how infectious each of these drops was Due to the lack of detailed data regarding viral load droplets from Covid patients.
After running their computer model, they checked their findings against an investigation into the London Heathrow to Hanoi flight which found one passenger had spread Covid to 12 others.
This program was capable of predicting 11 of 12 infected people and five of seven passengers near the affected persons who didn’t catch Covid.
This resulted in an overall accuracy of 84.2 percentage for the computer model.
Team members tested both the potential impact of wearing masks or reducing conversations between passengers while on the Singapore to Hangzhou flight. They found that they had a greatly decreased exposure.
Only one man was found to have been infected on the flight by Covid, according to an investigation.
The team’s simulation found that coughing and breathing alone would not have resulted in enough droplets to infect the man, and therefore, it was likely that conversation between nearby infected passengers led to him catching Covid.
They also said that according to the investigation details the man loosened his mask to have a conversation with his wife and son, something that greatly increased his chance of infection.
Reducing all passenger-to-passenger conversation would be an effective way to reduce the risk of exposure, the team concluded.
Research team at Hangzhou to Singapore attributed low rates of infection during flight mask usage.
Their model showed that if an infected passenger was on a London-to Hanoi flight, only two persons would be infected because the mask caught most of his dropslets.
Researchers said that if all passengers were wearing masks, only one would be infected.