As Covid-19 cases continue to surge across South Africa, state and local officials are pushing people to take steps that may help slow the spread of the virus.
While a vaccine may be crucial to fully stopping the virus, a new study finds simple steps may drastically help reduce the spread of the virus.
The new study published in the journal PLOS Medicine found that three steps may help stop or slow the Covid-19 outbreak without having a vaccine.
The three steps are simple: handwashing, physical distancing, and wearing a mask.
The study authors found that even without a vaccine, if enough people take steps to safeguard their health and decrease transmission risk, these steps can drastically help reduce the spread of disease.
The study noted that the measures need to be adopted by more than 50 percent of the population to help prevent a larger epidemic.
“If a population quickly becomes aware of the coronavirus and effective prevention measures, self-imposed prevention measures can both diminish and postpone the peak number of cases,” the authors said.
The study researchers developed a computational model of the spread of Covid-19 based on known information about the epidemiology of the disease. The model was used to study the predicted effect of prevention measures.
