Though health experts expected a high mortality rate due to respiratory diseases, the prevalent wearing of masks last year helped a lot of patients.

“Last year, we thought all patients with chronic respiratory disease will be severely affected and mortality rate would shoot up, especially among patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease. But it was not the case. This could be because of wearing masks,” said Dr Prasanna Kumar Thomas, consultant pulmonologist.

Doctors opine that the respiratory issues will come down drastically in the future and people acquiring infection will be very less if everyone sticks to wearing masks. Usually, respiratory infections transmit through droplets.

Dr P Sujatha, a general physician, said, “if people continue to wear face masks, even in the absence of COVID, there would only be minimal cases of respiratory diseases. Respiratory issues among senior citizens have some down by around 25 per cent in the past year.”