A new survey shows that more Americans are now routinely wearing masks compared to last year. The survey recorded that 80% of Americans are now into mask-wearing, but it may be too late.
Americans are now wearing masks
According to the latest edition of the survey that was run by Harvard, Northwestern and Rutgers universities, aside from mask-wearing, Americans are also now following social distancing rules.
However, people are still spending too much time without masks indoors with small groups of people that can still spike the spread of coronavirus, according to CTMirror.
More than 200,000 Americans are still being diagnosed with COVID-19 all over the country every day, and with the vaccine rollout effort moving slowly and more infectious variants being recorded and emerging in different states, the behaviors to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus transmission are more important than ever.
Co-author of the report, Dr. David Lazer of Northeastern University told NPR that the Americans have improved a lot in terms of mask-wearing and social distancing. However, in order to bend the curve Americans really need to do much better.
The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public's Policy Preferences Across States has been surveying around 20,000 people across the United States once a month to review the pattern of their behavior and study who it is connected in slowing the spread of the virus.
According to the data, fewer than 20% of people have been going out to see people in most forms throughout the pandemic. That number includes going to restaurants and using public transport, as well as going to the hospital, which has its own collateral damage.
The public health officials encourage going people to go the doctor despite the ongoing pandemic and the risk that is has.
New data recorded
But there are exceptions, around 40% of Americans are still seeing their friends or their relatives who do not live in the same state or same house and 30% of Americans are going to work. Those numbers are up from spring of last year, but down from 45% and 40% in October 2020.
Gatherings may be small, but they are still happening. Around 9% of respondents said that they have been in a room with 5 to 10 people in the past 24 hours. More than 2.5% had shared an enclosed space with 11 to 50 other people in a day.
Only a little over half of Americans are avoiding contact with other people, the number being 52% and people are tired of the restrictions and being isolated.
In April 2020, around 75% of respondents said that they were avoiding public or crowded places, compared to fewer than 60% by January 11, 2021.
Hand-washing also took a dive, with 72% of people still washing their hands properly, compared to 80% of people washing their hands properly back in April 2020.
Despite these declining numbers, the most impressive one has been for masking, according to KCRG-TV.
Data shows that Americans have finally caught on with mask-wearing as 80% of people are now covering their faces when they leave home, compared to 54% of Americans wearing masks in April 2021.
Related Article: Scientists Warn More 'Super-Covid' Variants are Coming Globally as US Reports Third Homegrown Variant
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Written by Sieeka Khan
