PA Residents Should Wear Masks: Gov. Wolf

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday called on all residents to wear a mask if they must leave their home. The measure is recommended in response to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, which has killed more than 100 Pennsylvania residents as of Friday.

A statewide stay-at-home order is in place, and residents are allowed to leave their homes only for essential tasks such as grocery shopping.

"When you absolutely must leave home, please wear a mask," Wolf said.

Wolf said the public should reserve N95 masks for health care workers and is asking residents to wear a homemade or cloth mask if they must go out. The state has provided these guidelines and instructions for people to make their own mask.

There are also numerous online tutorials for making face masks on YouTube. Online retailers, including Etsy, are currently selling the cloth masks, but shipping times vary.

RELATED: Materials And Instructions For Making Your Own Face Masks

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was expected to encourage Americans to wear cloth masks or face coverings while in public.

The mask recommendation is not a substitute for the social distancing measures already in place, but an additional step to reduce the spread of the virus, Wolf said.

"Masks help prevent people from sharing illnesses. But, they don’t do a great job at keeping people from getting sick and they’re not foolproof, so it is critical that our first act is to ask ourselves if we really need to leave our house. If we don’t really, truly need to leave, then we shouldn’t," Wolf said.

The most important thing is "please stay home," he added.

As of Friday, there are a total of 8,420 COVID-19 cases in 63 counties. The virus has killed 102 Pennsylvanians.

“Wearing a mask will help us cut down the possibility that we might be infecting an innocent bystander, like the grocery store cashier, the pharmacist, or someone stocking shelves,” Gov. Wolf said. “These people are keeping us alive by getting us the supplies we need. We owe it to them to do everything we can to keep them safe. Right now, that means wearing a mask.”

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