Wearing face masks soon to become the new normal, but don’t seek medical-grade version
Story has been updated with the new recommendation.
On Friday new face mask recommendations for the general public were announced by the White House as concerns over asymptomatic spread of the coronavirus grow.
President Donald Trump, in his daily White House briefing, said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that Americans wear basic “non-medical, cloth” masks on a voluntary basis.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the CDC “will now recommend that everyone wear face coverings in public settings, like pharmacies and grocery stores, to avoid unwittingly spreading the virus. Public health officials have stressed that N95 masks should be saved for front line doctors and nurses, who have been in dire need of protective gear.”
Officials also maintain that cloth masks, which still allow for transmission of the virus through the mask, are no substitute for social distancing, not touching your face, regularly washing your hands and regular disinfecting of high-touch surfaces.
Nonmedical grade masks might offer some benefit if worn by those who may have the virus but show no symptoms of COVID-19.
On Wednesday, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who had earlier demanded that people “stop buying masks” in a Feb. 29 tweet, said on NBC’s “Today” Show his earlier remarks had been based on the “best available evidence at the time,” but “we now know there is a significant amount of asymptomatic spread.”
At Gov. Jay Inslee’s news conference Thursday evening, state health officer Kathy Lofy said the state Department of Health was “in the process of evaluating data” and would come out with recommendations. soon.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department echoed those sentiments in response to questions late Thursday from The News Tribune.
“We are still working on guidance around masks to consider current activity and discussions on the topic,” according to the county health department.
Some areas have adopted general mask wearing, with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti urging his residents to wear nonmedical-grade masks, even bandannas, when in public running essential errands. Riverside County, California, also issued a similar advisory.
In Pierce County, health care systems were stocking up on masks in February ahead of the outbreak, but in just a few weeks faced a critical shortage, which continues.
On Wednesday, Amazon restricted sales of medical-grade face masks solely to hospitals and government agencies just ahead of the expected CDC guidance.
The company, in a blog post Thursday, said all of its workers would be outfitted with masks by early next week.
“Masks will be available as soon as today in some locations and in all locations by early next week. Any N95 masks we receive we are either donating to healthcare workers on the front lines or making them available through Amazon Business to healthcare and government organizations at cost,” the company said.
It also is introducing temperature checks of its warehouse workers before the start of shifts, in line with similar measures announced earlier this week by rival retailer Walmart.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Wearing face masks soon to become the new normal, but don’t seek medical-grade version."
