Respirators are our best defense against the aerosol spread of COVID.

Wear a mask any time you’re indoors, or in a crowd outdoors.

Which type of mask?

Consider upgrading from a medical/surgical mask or cloth masks to an FFP2 or FFP3 respirator mask. (Why wear an FFP2 respirator instead of a surgical mask?)

• Cloth / Homemade masks are 51% efficient at filtering aerosols; 1/5 stars. 56% efficient at filtering large droplets (not aerosols).
• Surgical / medical are 89% effective at filtering aerosols, 3/5 stars. 98.5% efficient at filtering large droplets (not aerosols).
• KN95 / NIOSH N95 are 95% effective at filtering aerosols. 99% efficient at filtering large droplets (not aerosols).
• Medical masks are not as effective as KN95 or N95 against catching + spreading covid.

Ideal mask then is an FFP2 or FFP3 (european equivalent of N95 and N99). KN95 & KN94 are Korean versions with similar filtering.

What does FFP2/FFP3 mean?

FFP means The “filtering face piece” and the following number is the score. This score comes from the EN standard 149:2001, a standard maintained by CEN ( European Committee for Standardization).

FFP2/3  masks are defined as being composed of three layers of synthetic non-woven materials, available in different thicknesses, with the inclusion of filtration layers between. (Source)

Mask shapes

There are many different masks shapes available on the market since there are so many types of faces! There isn’t a ‘better’ shape for everyone as the best mask is the one that fits you the best.

You can do a fit test to check which is the best fit for you.

Fit Test Info