Or you can lock down only so much. You shouldn’t try to control everything. It can blow up in your face.
I wear a mask whenever I am in a public place or think I will run into people. I own several masks. I work part time in a public library and wear one there. My husband wears one every day, all day, at his work and has since March 15. I’ve found mask wearing to be very uneven and it seems to depend on how well the individual places enforce it - it’s a state rule if you are outside and will be within 6 feet of anyone, you need a mask. I stopped in my local grocery store yesterday and everyone was wearing a mask. I stopped in a butcher shop another town over and the employees weren’t wearing masks!!
I drove around UCLA yesterday to give my car some exercise, and I’d estimate that no more than 50% of the people I saw were wearing masks. California implemented a mask policy about two weeks ago, and LA has had one since mid-May, but people are simply ignoring them now that it’s getting warmer.
Personally, I’m usually in the Middle East doing field research each summer, so it’s a great deal cooler here even wearing a mask. I always wear one outside my apartment.
A delta employee made this student with special needs an elmo mask to help him with his discomfort about wearing a mask on the plane https://www.cbs46.com/news/delta-employees-act-of-kindness-helps-special-needs-child/article_a3bf1540-b9f1-11ea-8db6-670cf44cf692.html
Bluntly speaking, cross-border lifestyle has been a significant part of the spike. Most Californian hospitals have avoided a surge in coronavirus patients thus far. El Centro Regional Medical Center in Imperial County and Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista in San Diego county have not. Some U.S. citizens and legal residents who live in Mexico crossing from TIjuana and Mexicali are being treated in the U.S.
Now COVID-19 patients are being transferred out of Chula Vista to other Scripps hospitals farther north, to distribute caseloads. In El Centro, they are overwhelmed and diverted patients to facilities in San Diego, National City, and elsewhere. More than 2,025 confirmed bases in Imperial County, which has the highest hospitalization rate in the state. Community has family on both sides of the border, and the uptick is suspected to be from Mother’s Day weekend and the aforementioned cross-border lifestyle. (source: Kaiser Health News)
Interesting. Why don’t we hear about it in the media? The media chuck the surge to early opening that didn’t explain CA’ s surge.
Our butcher shop has strictly enforced masks inside, they limit the number of people inside, and they require people inside to stand on social distancing squares while waiting for their number to be called. They have done this since mid-March. I live in an anti-mask area, but people wear them without vocally complaining. I don’t think they all wear masks in Kroger, though, judging by the small number of people with masks at the Kroger down the road from the market. But the market has expectations, and if you want to shop there, you put on a mask & refrain from complaining.
I don’t believe in a mask but I put it on. People are sensitive at the moment. No need to make others uncomfortable by not putting it on. For me, it is more social reason than medical. For me, it is not that important either way. It is not that hard to don a piece of cloth, any cloth when you go inside. It certainly is not a hill to die on.
@Igloo – the comment from @thealternative might be correct for their region, but that is not likely a factor for much of California where rates are going up. Here’s a link to a map that shows the geographic distribution - https://covid19.ca.gov/roadmap-counties/#track-data
Yellow areas are the ones where the numbers have been going up. You’ll see that currently extends as far north as Glenn County.
It really varies by area – it’s just that California is a big state. I’m in a blue region that locked down early & “opened” late (still plenty of restrictions, and mask-wearing mandated though not enforced as well as I would like). So my blue area has a 3.6% positivity rate and about 2 cases per 1000 residents over the last 14 days. Sacramento (yellow) has a 5.6% positivity rate and 1.6 cases per 1000 residents. Kings County, in central California (also yellow) has a 13.5 test positivity rate, and 4 cases per 1000 residents. (I’m guessing that the reason my areas is blue is because our lower positivity rate indicates we are doing more testing, and possibly catching more asymptomatic & mild cases – I know that there has been an uptick but still plenty of beds & resources in local hospitals).
I’m assuming that there are all sorts of different factors that influence infection rates in different regions.
Chapel Hill, NC here. We’re all masked and have been since a few weeks into quarantine (took some time to find masks!). Our state and county require masks when in public, so we keep a few in the car as well as a basket next in the house’s designated “drop zone”.
We don’t mask if we’re just going for a neighborhood walk or something similar but I took youngest S for a haircut downtown this week and even though I had to sit outside to wait for him, I left my mask on b/c I was stationary.
I mask any place indoors. I wear a level 3 surgical mask.
My office door says “mask required for entry” and I hold fast. No mask, you aren’t coming in. So far, 100% compliance, and only a few complaints. For those who “forget”, I have many styles available that just about everyone can wear. We are very safe, have all the appropriate PPE, and disinfect or sterilize everything we can. I need to protect my staff and me.
I have a collection of masks - one N92 (apparently European equivalent of N95) which my future daughter-in-law picked up in Bahrain where she was doing research. I have a collection of surgical masks which her parents mailed to us from Hong Kong. And then something that purports to be an N-95, but isn’t since it has ear pieces.
Anyway, I wear the N92 to the supermarket along with gloves.
I wear the fake N95 without gloves to my blueprint guy (never more than one other person in the store) and to see most of my clients, except the ones I don’t trust then I wear the N92.
I bring the surgical mask with me whenever I’m outside in public and put it on if I get within 10-15 feet of someone.
I generally try to stay at least three feet from people even with a mask on.
I’m in New York (Westchester County) and feel relatively safe now, but it was pretty ugly back in March/April. I think we got our first masks on March 18.
adding:
In our downtown 98% or so wearing masks inside. (I’ve seen one person wearing a mask around her chin at a CVS.) Probably 90% wearing them outside (though most of the non-mask wearers do have masks around their necks or in their hands.) In our more residential area, people generally aren’t wearing masks if they can keep well apart.
My next door neighbor has been having parties every weekend. It’s clear it’s sort of a bubble of people she works with, close friends of her daughter and her parents. They are mostly outside, but not six feet apart.
Started wearing a mask March 11 (actually, a heavy woven scarf) on my 600-mile trip home from GA to MD following my brother’s funeral.
I only go indoors for dr/lab appts I can’t do online. For those I double mask with a standard hospital mask plus double-layer heavy cloth. I mask for drive-thru (contact-free mailbox for shipping masks), pick-your-own farms (required by local regs), dropping off masks at someone’s house (even though I put the bags in a box outside), etc. I don’t go in any stores or run errands. The local PYOs have done an impressive job of social distancing and developing ways to pay/manage incoming guests that are hands-free.
DH wears a mask when he’s near me and when he’s not, maintains 6’ distance. He is WFH and has taken over the office. I don’t wear a mask when I walk the dog, but I do that at 11 pm and the only foot traffic then is foxes, deer and the occasional night owl also walking a dog. We haven’t had anyone in the house or on the porch for socializing.
Our county mandates masks for many things, so it’s fairly normalized and people are compliant. I will say it was really hard picking fruit while masked in 95 degree temps yesterday.
I started making masks 3/13, at first for DH and a friend in NYC doing chemo, then for my oncologist’s department and a couple supportive housing groups I am involved with, and now for a larger mask group that distributes across DC/VA/MD.
Most of you will think this is overkill, but I have several serious risk factors. My docs support this level of protection, as I have a couple of upcoming procedures that cannot wait.
@CountingDown - you are smart to do that. Stay safe.
I am very glad my county is largely mask compliant. The people who wear masks incorrectly (below nose or on chin) are so rare that you can count them on one hand usually.
I think the high level of mask wearing indoors has contributed to our state having such low numbers of COVID cases. We have just passed 1,000 total cases for our state total, with the large majority of them discharged as recovered and 19 deaths total.
I wear a mask at work (unless I am in my office by myself), at the market, etc… I actually work at a Covid Surge Facility. I do not have contact with the patients, however if I go anywhere into that building, I am required to wear an N95 mask that I went through “fit-testing” for. Staff that have any contact with the patients are required to wear full PPE. I do not wear a mask when I play tennis (although I wear it when I check in and walk to the court) and I do not wear a mask when I walk my dog (although often have one in my pocket just in case). My daughter and her husband (who both WFH) come to dinner every Sunday night and we eat outside and do not wear masks.
@oldmom4896 No, a face shield doesn’t work either it fogs up my glasses and I start to cough.
If you want to see nervous people cough in public these days.
Was walking on the beach with my SIL the other day and I coughed a bit ( asthma related). She was like are you ok? Yep, I’m fine just my asthma. Relief on her face.
I haven’t had any run in with people because I do respect others by keeping my distance and covering up when I/they pass.
I saw people ( lots) going into a port-a-potty this weekend WITHOUT shoes!!!
I got some nice face shields on Esty and I wear glasses and never had them fog up my glasses. Maybe try another type?
Where we live in San Diego most people where masks. H and I went for a walk yesterday in downtown La Jolla near the beaches and there were many people not distanced and not wearing masks. I think many were here from out of state judging by the license plates we saw.
San Diego will be on the watchlist after this weekend for California because of an uptick in cases and we have had a surge in community outbreaks. The bars near the beach where D1 lives did not do a good job keeping people distanced so they have been closed down unless they are serving food. I think the county may close down indoor dining again because of the increase in cases. H and I have gone out a few times to eat, but only do outdoor dining.