Author(s): Lucky Herawati*, Siti Hani Istiqomah, Iswanto and M Mirza Fauzie
The effectiveness of cloth masks is determined, among other things, by the filtration ability of the type of material used and the number of layers. There is still little information about the effectiveness of using cloth masks in terms of the number of germs and the length of time they are used. The study aimed to determine the number of germs present in 3-kind cloth of masks made from different types of materials and different durations of use. This quasi-experimental study with a time series post-test-only design was carried out. The 3 types of cloth mask materials were tested on 37 workers from 3 minimarkets in the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia and its surroundings. The germ was measured using the swab method after all respondents used the 3 masks everyday sequentially from 1st-3rd weeks. Data on the number of germs as many as 333 were analysed using ANOVA with a significant level of 0.05. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the number of germs in the inner layers of the three different types of mask materials after 3 hours and 4 hours of use (p values 0.086 and 0.769). However, after 5 hours of use, the white cloth mask made from premium cotton showed the lowest number of germs significantly compared to the others (35.97 CFU, p-value 0.000). Cloth masks can be used by everyone to prevent transmission of Covid-19 and other diseases by replacing them every 5 hours of using.
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