Facemasks and lockdowns can halt second, third waves of Covid-19

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A woman wearing a face mask stands on a street in Jakarta on March 2, 2020. - Indonesia on March 2 reported its first confirmed cases of coronavirus, after health officials in the world's fourth-most populous country hit back at questions over its apparent lack of infected patients. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP)

POPULATION-WIDE use of facemasks keeps the coronavirus ‘reproduction number’ under 1.0, and prevents further waves of the virus when combined with lockdowns, a modelling study from the universities of Cambridge and Greenwich suggests.

The research suggests that lockdowns alone will not stop the resurgence of SARS-CoV-2, and that even homemade masks with limited effectiveness can dramatically