As the summer months continue and more places open up during the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials are urging people to wear a face mask.

Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf is one of those proponents and explains the importance of face coverings to help flatten the curve against the virus.

“What the mask does (is it) protects others from your germs. It does not protect you from others’ germs, but it protects the other person. In case you cough, or sneeze, or laugh, or you sing, or you play an instrument. All of those expel those germs into the air within a six foot range.”

Family Practice Physician Dr. Laurie Connolly with Greene County Medical Center says when the pandemic started in mid-March, masks were not as important because of the social distant restrictions that were in place.

“So you didn’t need a mask because you were staying away from other people. But we have some pretty good evidence now that the masks, even the cloth masks, help protect the other people from you.” 

Wolf recommends wearing a mask whenever you are not at home, at gatherings where social distancing is harder to control and in businesses and indoor public places.