Washington becomes latest state to make wearing masks in public mandatory

Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee (D) announced on Tuesday a mandatory order requiring face coverings be worn in all indoor public spaces and outdoors if physical distancing can’t be maintained.

Driving the news: The order, effective Friday, comes as several counties across the state have reported increases in coronavirus cases, as local economies reopen from lockdown and states across the U.S. see spikes.

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“I think of these face coverings, in some sense, as a statement. It’s a statement that when you wear it, it means you care about people, because it means you want to reduce the risk that you are going to infect another person.”

Inslee’s remarks during Tuesday’s news briefing

By the numbers: Washington has confirmed almost 30,000 novel coronavirus cases, including over 4,000 hospitalizations. More than 1,200 people have died of the virus in the state.

• Nationwide, more than 121,200 people have died of COVID-19. More than 2.3 million have tested positive for the virus from over 28 million tests.

The big picture: Other states to have introduced mandatory measures for face masks are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The District of Columbia has also introduced measures on face coverings.

Go deeper: Mask mandates may have prevented hundreds of thousands of coronavirus cases

Source: https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-states-mandatory-mask-orders-eb28ab89-ad8d-402f-a39c-c44ec54ff035.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rebecca Falconer

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