SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus also known as COVID-19, has caused a global pandemic, claiming the lives of over 3 million people, and counting. Governments and local polities have implemented public health mandates to reduce the spread, including mask-wearing, a policy that remains controversial. The aim of this study was to examine how effective strict enforcement of mask-wearing policies is in reducing COVID-19 infection rates. A total of 30 countries and subnational political jurisdictions were selected using Text Finder’s random choice generator, then sorted into three categories of mask enforcement: strict, moderate, and lax, characterized by punishments, non-enforcement, or lack of precautions. The percent changes in cases were recorded over a 3-month period prior to and after the declaration of mask mandates for each locality, then analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test to rank the three categories. The mean rankings from greatest to Efficacy of Mask Use in Reducing Sars-Cov2 Infection Rates Sabrina Guo least were: lax (24.90), moderate (12.90), and strict (8.70). The Kruskal-Wallis test result was H(2)= 18.240, P=.000. Locations with stricter mask policies had lower infection rates. Therefore, it was concluded that strictly enforced mask policies were most effective in limiting COVID-19 transmission. Confounding variables include political agendas, the sway of public opinions, and a transient lack of data on COVID. Future research could analyze the effectiveness of mask enforcement in locations with different COVID-19 variants.

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