SLO County health officer now recommends wearing cloth face masks when you leave home
San Luis Obispo County Public Health officials now recommend residents wear masks when they leave their homes to go places where it’s difficult to maintain distance from others.
This doesn’t change the need for sheltering at home and physical distancing in a bid to avoid contracting COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.
The recommendation came April 9, nearly a week after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California Department of Public Health released similar recommendations on face coverings. Now, some California cities are requiring masks.
Residents should not purchase surgical and N95 masks in an effort to assure medical-grade masks are available for health care providers. Instead, the county recommends people wear “cloth face coverings.”
Public Health officials, nationally and locally, have expressed hesitance about directing people to wear masks, because it can give people a false sense of security. If you’re wearing a mask, you might be more inclined to touch your face, for example.
SLO Public Health Officer Penny Borenstein continues to place the emphasis on staying home and washing your hands.
“Staying home as much as possible is the single most important thing you can do to stop the spread of this virus,” Borenstein said in a prepared statement.
Specifically, health officials encourage residents to “wear cloth face coverings if they are unable to maintain a safe six feet of distance from others when conducting essential activities outside of the home, such as grocery shopping or picking up medicine,” a press release says.
A fabric covering primarily protects people around you if you are a carrier of the virus. There is mounting evidence that COVID-19 is sometimes spread by people who do not feel sick.
Children under the age of 2 and anyone who has trouble breathing should not wear a mask.
Dirty face coverings can do more harm than good, Borenstein said.
“Remember to wash your hands often, avoid touching your face, and stay at least six feet away from others if you need to go out. Cloth face coverings can also add another layer of protection, but only if it remains clean,” she said.
To keep a face covering clean:
- Wash it at least daily with hot water and soap or detergent
- When you get home, remove the covering with clean hands, avoid touching your face and put it in a sealed bag until you wash it.
- Wash your hands immediately after removing the mask.
For details on how to make your own face covering, visit ReadySLO.org.
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 7:15 PM.
