Mask Wearing: Why It’s Important & Best Practices


Public health experts say proper hygiene, social distancing, and wearing a mask are some of the best measures you can take to reduce chances of contracting the novel coronavirus. Masks, or any cloth face covering that completely covers your mouth and nose, help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling in the air onto someone else when the person wearing a face covering sneezes, coughs, talks, or raises their voice. Masks are most effective when everyone is wearing them. The graphic below illustrates why masks are important and how they help to prevent transmission of COVID-19:

You can read more about wearing masks and find links to numerous studies showing the effectiveness of face coverings in reducing COVID transmission through this link from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover-guidance.html