According to a message from Public Health Malaysia, using homemade/ DIY cloth masks may increase the risk of COVID-19 infection.

Besides, according to a study on the cloth masks used by the medical professionals in Hanoi hospitals, it is found that cloth masks led to more infections than medical masks because of its relatively high moisture, which can easily cause accumulation of bacteria.

Moreover, the material of the homemade cloth mask cannot effectively isolate viruses or bacteria.

Furthermore, without effective disinfection, the bacteria or virus will remain on the mask, and the risk of infection will increase when the DIY cloth mask is being reused.

At the time you put the DIY cloth mask on your face again, it may already be contaminated with the bacteria/ viruses.

There is another study (published in the Journal of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2013) which examined the effectiveness of several household materials in blocking bacterial and viral aerosols. It is found that commercial surgical masks were 3 times as effective as DIY masks at preventing bacterial and viral aerosols.

However, N95 respirators are even more effective than commercial surgical masks in filtering out tiny virus particles. This study concluded that a DIY mask should only be regarded as the last option to prevent droplet transmission from infected individuals because it would be better than no protection.

In the absence of a medical mask, it is recommended that you wash your hands diligently to reduce the chance of infection. If there is no way, you must use a homemade cloth mask, make sure that it does not exceed three hours at a time, and then you must thoroughly disinfect with the sun.