France says handmade cloth masks less effective against new COVID variant
Faced with the new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus, France’s High Council of Public Health (HCSP) has implicitly advised against certain fabric masks that don’t properly filter the virus that causes Covid-19. However, any moves against using fabric masks will be difficult to implement.
The HCSP said handmade cloth masks filtered only around 70 percent of particles, and recommended the government promote reusable category 1 fabric masks, which filter more than 90 percent, as well as surgical masks, considered to be even more effective.
“With the arrival in Europe of certain new variants of Covid-19, the question presents itself as to what category of mask should be offered to the general population,” declared Didier Lepelletier, an official from the HCSP, earlier this week on BFMTV.