With the rapid spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, people have been stocking up on groceries, toilet paper and surgical face masks.The resulting shortage of face masks, in particular, has caused the government to step in, promising toissue tworeusable cloth masksto every household starting this week.

If you cant get your hands on any masks in the stores,there are plenty of DIY alternatives, including masks made of paper towels and handkerchiefs. But you might be wondering just how effective a homemade mask really is. Well,Dr Tomoaki Okuda, a chemistry professor at Keio University, has recently shared an experiment he conducted on three different types of masks totesttheir efficiency at filtering out particles in the air, including virus.

In the video, Dr Okuda blows air through three types of masks: a regular surgical face mask, apaper towel mask and a cloth handkerchief, and measures the number of particles that pass through each mask. Dr Okuda's experiment had some pretty surprising results:

Overall, the test resultsshow that while no mask can completely filter out all the particles in the air, they are still useful. Those made from fabric or even paper towels might be a handy alternative to the disposable ones that are currently so hard to find.

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Japanese chemistry professor tested three types of face masks for their efficacy - Time Out