Epidemics worldwide caused by common antibiotic-resistant microorganisms susceptible to mutations, together with the lack of vaccines and efficient treatments, as well as their associated hospital infections, are a serious risk to the global health, particularly in underdeveloped countries . The pandemic caused by the outbreak of the new coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)), responsible for the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19, led to the use of personal protective masks as a mandatory non-pharmacological measure in every country . This led to a shortage of masks in the first few months of the pandemic. Particularly, the efficiency of personal protective masks was evaluated by Ueki et al. . They demonstrated that the use of masks can prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, leading to a virus absorption reduction by 70% when two mannequins used cloth and surgical masks and by almost 100% with N95 masks . Studies targeting the SARS-CoV-2 regarding the efficiency and reusability of masks as well as the development of masks intelligently designed with graphene were published last year by Liao et al. and Zhong et al. . The study by this year suggests an antiviral activity of ZnO against the SARS-CoV-2 .