Can plexiglass stop COVID?

When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in mid-March, the management at Milt & Edie’s Drycleaners in Burbank, CA, knew they needed to protect their workers and customers.  They mandated masks and hung plastic shields at every workstation where customers drop off clothes.

The shields allow customers and workers to see each other and talk easily, but not worry about getting sneezed on or coughed on. Plexiglass partitions are seemingly everywhere these days — grocery stores, dry cleaners, restaurant pickup windows, discount stores, and pharmacies.

They’re recommended by the CDC and OSHA, among others.

Despite the widespread recommendations for the plexiglass barriers and their widespread use, research on how well they work to slow the spread of COVID-19 is lacking, experts say, as reported by WebMD.