With United States of America all set to begin making 400 million N95 masks available for free at pharmacies and community health centres, a survey by community social media platform LocalCircles, found that 67% of citizens want the Government of India to immediately roll out a mission to ensure every Indian gets free N95/KN95/FFP2 mask. This question in the survey received 9,902 responses. Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with chief ministers have been stressing the importance of wearing masks, with Tamil Nadu increasing fines for non-compliance last week.
According to Union Health Ministry, India on January 20 recorded 3.17 lakh new cases, 380 deaths and 19,24,051 active cases. Of which, 12,306 cases were recorded in Delhi; 5,708 cases in Mumbai, 30,540 in Bengaluru, 17,59 in Kolkata and 7,520 new cases in Chennai.
A December 2021 survey conducted by LocalCircles found that 1 in 3 Indians are not even carrying a mask when stepping out of home, with only 2% citizens studied rating mask compliance in their district/area as effective. Further, 2 in 3 Indians were found to be wearing cloth masks that provide limited protection from COVID. Experts suggest that N-95 or KN-95 masks are now a necessity with surgical masks providing limited protection and cloth masks providing near-zero protection.
Based on research in the public domain, LocalCircles has put together what it takes for Omicron to transmit between two individuals (infected and vulnerable) based on their masking status and when they are indoors and 6 feet apart. The time required to reach an infectious dose for an individual from an infected individual if both are wearing an N-95 mask is 3 hours 24 minutes of exposure for the Omicron variant of SARS-COV2.
However, the time required to reach an infectious dose for an individual from an infected individual if neither is wearing a mask or are wearing a cloth mask is just 2 minutes of exposure. It increases to 4 minutes with the vulnerable person wearing a surgical mask, and 20 minutes with an N-95 mask.
For many Indians, while a cloth mask can be made at home and surgical masks cost less than Rs 5, while an N95 or KN95 costing between Rs 50-100 is not affordable especially for the whole family and the requirement to replace it every week. Several LocalCircles members discussed the need for Government to distribute free N95/KN95 masks for every household and to understand if the idea has larger public consensus, LocalCircles has conducted a survey to understand the same.
The survey received more than 18,500 responses from citizens residing in 307 districts of India. 65% of respondents were men while 35% were women.
PROTECTIVE MASKS FOR ALL
The first question in the survey asked citizens, “Should the Government of India immediately roll out a mission to ensure every home gets free N-95/KN-95/FFP2 mask?” In response, 28% said “No” and 5% did not have an opinion. The majority of 67% of citizens said “Yes” they want the Government of India to immediately roll out a mission to ensure every Indian gets free N-95/KN-95/FFP2 mask. This question in the survey received 9,902 responses.
PROTECTIVE MASKS FOR ALL MISSION
The next question asked citizens “What is the best way to fund a ‘compliant mask for all’ program for the public at large so quality masks (N-95/KN-95/FFFP2) reach every individual?” In response, 73% of citizens said, “Government should fund whatever it can and raise the remainder from corporates via Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) but taxes shouldn’t be increased”.
There were also 19% of citizens who said, “Government should enable corporates to donate CSR funds for the program” and 4% said “Government should fund it and raise taxes via a special cess while 4% did not have an opinion. On an aggregate basis, 73% of citizens who support this mission say the Government should fund this program and enable CSR capital to fund any shortfall. This question in the survey received 8,740 responses.
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