Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk around central Seoul on Oct. 12, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — With mask wearing becoming a new social norm in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, only a handful of South Korean consumers turned out to be using new masks every day.
According to a survey conducted by Consumers Korea, a non-profit organization of consumers in South Korea, of 1,000 citizens over 20 years of age, the largest share of the respondents (35.6 percent) said that they use the same mask two days in a row.
The share of those who said they use the same mask three days in a row was also significant at 23.8 percent.
In other words, more than a half of consumers use the same mask two or three days in a row.
The share of those who said they use a new mask every day remained low at 18.4 percent.
The survey asked the 816 respondents who said they use the same mask for more than two days why they opted not to use a new mask every day.
Among the respondents, 36.2 percent said that it was because they wanted to save money, while 34.7 percent said they do not frequently go out, and 25 percent said there was no contamination or infection even if using the same mask for more than a day.
As for mask type, 35.5 percent of the respondents said that they mainly use KF94 masks, followed by KF-AD (27.5 percent), one-off non-woven mask (20.6 percent), KF80 mask (10.7 percent) and multi-use mask (5.5 percent).
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
