California officials recommended residents in the Southland and across the state on Thursday wear two face masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus infection despite other regions lifting the mask mandates.
The California Department of Public Health revised their guidelines on wearing masks, suggesting the use of two face masks when going out in public. The recommendation notes the use of gap-free facial coverings to block respiratory droplets.
Double Masking
The guidance has begun to promote the idea of “double masking” — the use of a cloth mask over a surgical/disposable mask.
“We are encouraging people basically to double down on mask-wearing, particularly in light of all of what I would argue is bad information coming from at least four states in this country. We will not be walking down their path. We’re mindful of your health and our future,” California State Governor Gavin Newsom said during a press conference on Thursday.
“I’ll just note, without belaboring the point, that positivity rates in those states (are) substantially higher than even here in the state of California, and yet we still feel very, very strongly as we begin to loosen things up and reopen our economy that mask-wearing (becomes) now more essential as we transition to herd immunity and broad access to vaccines,” Newsom said.
The state governor said officials who ordered the lifting made a terrible mistake, noting Texas had a coronavirus positivity rate five times that of California’s, while Florida is four times higher, NBC Los Angeles reported.
“This is not the time to spike the ball. There’s no mission accomplished sign behind us. We really have to work through this next six to eight weeks, nine weeks, the next 100 days until we get to that abundance frame with the vaccines,” Newsom said.
