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How wearing a face mask can help decrease COVID-19 transmission

Whether you are going to the grocery store, eating at a restaurant, or hanging out with friends outside, it is highly recommended you wear a face mask.

BRYAN, Texas — As coronavirus cases continue to rise in Texas, mayors across the state are asking Governor Abbott to require masks.

“When it comes to how we’re going to stop the transmission, it really gets back to the individual responsibility. We still have a pandemic, we still have this disease in our community," said Texas A&M School of Public Health assistant professor Angela Clendenin.

The coronavirus is not over and the number of cases are not going down.

Whether you are going to the grocery store, eating at a restaurant, or hanging out with friends outside, it is highly recommended you wear a face mask.

“We are seeing a significant increase in cases here in Brazos County and a lot of the cases are in that younger demographic actually, about 18 to the low 50’s, and these are people who are trying to go back to work and people who are trying to get back to normal and on top of that, they may be mildly symptomatic," said Clendenin.

When you don’t feel like you have the virus, you may continue to go out and engage in everyday activities.

“If they were to go get tested, there’s a good chance that they will end up being positive and as long as they’re going out without a face mask and they’re around large groups of people, for long periods of time, then they’re helping to transmit the disease"

Coronavirus particles spread through the air between two people. Wearing a face mask and socially distancing will make it harder for these droplets to spread.

“We have to be smart here, we have to recognize this is the way the virus is transmitted, we have to recognize that just because there has been an opening doesn’t mean the virus has become any less virulent, any less of a threat, in fact it’s become even more of one," said Brazos County Health Department alternate health authority Dr. Seth Sullivan. 

Dr. Sullivan added wearing a face mask is most important indoors when you cannot socially distance yourself, especially when you are shopping.

“The problem with the grocery store is you don’t have control over social distancing. If you’re up and looking in an aisle, there might be somebody within your space frequently, and they could be coughing, sneezing and you don’t know until it’s already happened and it’s entered your space...[so] anywhere indoors where you’re within that six-foot radius of your fellow shoppers," said Sullivan.

Wearing a mask and containing the spread of COVID-19 is an individual responsibility and every person’s effort makes a difference. 

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