Close contacts mean people that you have prolonged interaction with, i.e. not just saying hello. But perhaps working in the same office, having a meal together, and of course household contacts.

I don't know, I'm assuming the Italians are washing their hands...doesn't seem to be doing much good. Also, remember that unless you are _amazing_ at not touching your face, washing your hands will only protect you until the next time you touch a surface, and then touch your face. A) masks reduce face touching behaviour, and B) if someone is infected, but wearing a mask outside of the home, the number of surfaces that they contaminate (which others will touch) decreases drastically..

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tb

PS the major issue with masks for everyone, and it's a REAL issue is that we just don't have enough masks in the West...if we all have 2 masks and re-use every other day, that's still 600M needed in the US alone...which is 10x more than what's actually available...