DENVER (AP) - Colorado Gov. Jared Polis urged all residents Friday to wear cloth masks each time they leave home, another measure to stem the spread of the coronavirus as the state’s death toll from the pandemic surpassed 100.
Briefly donning a multicolored mask during a news conference, Polis cited the widespread use of masks in virus containment strategies effectively employed in South Korea and Taiwan. He called for wearing a homemade mask, fashioned of cloth, or a scarf when running essential errands permitted under the state’s shelter-in-place order.
To those immediately scoffing at the idea in online posts, Polis said that “you’re only prolonging this for the rest of us and you’re costing the lives of your fellow Coloradans.”
The White House said later Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends that Americans cover their faces when leaving the home, especially around other people. The guidance suggests that people use T-shirts, bandannas and non-medical masks. Medical masks, especially N95 respirators, are in short supply and are needed for health care and other front line workers.
Polis noted that up to half of people with the virus don’t show symptoms and can easily infect grocery workers and others. More information, including how-to guides, can be found at a new website, coloradomaskproject.com, he said.
“Let’s make it cool and as fun as we can,” Polis said, suggesting residents dig out old T-shirts, grab some scissors and fashion their own face wear. His do-it-yourself suggestion reflected the vast shortages of face masks and other personal protective gear that U.S. states are coping with as their health care networks confront the pandemic.
Along with private manufacturers, the state soon hopes to deliver 100,000 masks a week to the most vulnerable and to front line workers.
Colorado’s coronavirus death toll reached at least 111, with more than 4,173 cases and more than 800 people hospitalized.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause pneumonia.
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