Masks and free tests helped slow the spread of Covid variants in Germany--study

Learning from the COVID pandemic: On the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions against pathogens In the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effectiveness of government-ordered measures to contain the pandemic, such as regular testing and the wearing of medical masks, was repeatedly called into question. Science X Medical Xpress

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Through a large-scale analysis of viral genome data, a working group led by DZIF researcher Prof. Alice McHardy at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) has now discovered that significantly fewer new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus entered Germany in connection with the introduction of certain measures such as the wearing of medical masks and free access to rapid antigen tests. ...

The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

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