Not a ‘safe-looking’ face mask, but crowds on the street ensure that people do not keep their distance from each other, according to the Study Center for Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR). That is the conclusion after first observations in a busy shopping street, which were made before mouth masks were mandatory there.
Researchers observed a street in Amsterdam via camera images between the end of May and the beginning of June. There they saw that most of the people ignore the guideline to keep a distance of 1.5 meters from each other.
More than half of those observed (55 percent) did not stick to 1.5 meters in the half minute that they were in the picture. 12 percent even kept less than 0.5 meters away. Families or people who clearly came from one household were not included.
According to the study, busyness was a predictive factor for keeping distance: the busier it was on the street, the less distance was kept.
However, wearing a face mask made no difference in keeping your distance. It was also observed that 80 percent of the users wore their mouth mask correctly, ie over mouth and nose. It should be noted, however, that the question is whether that figure is still correct, now that the mouth mask is not a choice but a duty.
The researchers do not want to say which street it concerns, because that could possibly disrupt follow-up research.
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