Less than a quarter of people wore a mask correctly – against the nearly one-third compliance the city saw in October 2020, a survey done by Chennaibased National Institute of Epidemiology between Mar 20 and March 26 has found.
The round three of the mask compliance study in Greater Chennai Corporation was done by scientists from the ICMR institute in March after observing 3,200 individuals outdoors and 1,280 individuals indoors of 64 selected streets across the city. The study states that at least 67% of people in slums and 58% in non-slum areas did not wear a mask in an indoor setting such as grocery store, pharmacies, religious places or apparel stores. At least 20% of people who went to malls did not wear a mask. In the outdoor setting, about 56% of people in slums and 53% of people in non-slums did not wear a mask. At malls, mask compliance dropped from 57% in Dec 2020 to 51% in March.
Health agencies such as WHO and ICMR have vouched for face masks to slow the spread of the virus. “We have to trust the mask…” said NIE deputy director Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, who was a part of the study.
During round 1 of the survey done in October 2020, after observing 3,600 people, epidemiologists found 28% of people in slums and 36% of people in non-slums wore masks properly. In the second round, among 3200 people 29% of people in slums and 35% of people in non-slums: 35% wore masks properly. In the second round, the team studied compliance to masks in indoors settings and in malls. It was found that 11% in slums and 10% in nonslums wore a mask in an indoor setting, while 57% of mall visitors wore masks.
As Chennai Covid-19 cases began to increase in February, the epidemiologists did the third round of the survey in the last week of March. In each of the 64 streets – 32 in slum areas – scientists observed 50 consecutive individuals outdoors and 20 individuals in indoor places. They also observed 150 individuals each in the nine malls of Chennai. “We need strict enforcement of masks to bring down the epidemic curve. Those who don’t comply will be fined,” said DPH TS Selvavinayagam.