A recent study was carried out in the Czech Republic to investigate public opinion about wearing facemasks. The study found that one in ten Czechs feel their masks are functional for the whole day and only 16% of people change their mask after each time they use it. Photo credit: Freepik / For illustrative purposes.
Czech Rep., Oct 11 (BD) – The number of coronavirus cases has been growing rapidly in the Czech Republic, but a recent survey has found that many people underestimate the need to take care of their masks and wear them appropriately. A significant part of the population is “fed up with the long-term restrictions” and many are “bothered by wearing masks”.
According to the results, young adults tend to ignore facemasks (6%), while middle-aged and older generations overestimate the effectiveness of the masks. The research found that one in ten Czechs consider their mask to be functional enough for the whole day. 40.3% of Czechs change their mask once a day and 15% of the population change them once a week. Only 16% of respondents change their mask after each time it is used.
The survey was conducted by the IPSOS agency for a Brno company, Respilon, which researches and develops nanofiber products. The sample included 550 participants aged between 18-65 from across the Czech Republic.
“It is often out of ignorance that people touch the respirators or masks with their hands to the face, adjust them differently when worn, wear them throughout the day without changing them or, for example, take them off to smoke, and then put the same mouthpiece back on. In this way, they reduce the effectiveness or directly endanger themselves, because it is the contact of the hands with droplets containing COVID-19 virus particles and subsequent contact with the facial area that are among the common ways of transmitting the disease,” explained Jana Zimová, CEO of Respilon.
A large percentage of the population are uncomfortable wearing masks because it can restrict breathing and the ability to speak properly, and over a third of the population (36.1%) are bothered by the requirement to wear a mask. However, the most significant motivation for wearing a mask is “the protection of people in my area from coronavirus,” which was cited by one third of Czechs (35.3%) in the sample.
