Official: Cover face to limit the spread
Lab-confirmed virus cases at 10
OROVILLE » Butte County Health Officer Andy Miller is now recommending people, even if they’re healthy, cover their face if they go out to further limit the outbreak of COVID-19.
The new recommendation follows growing scientific findings showing that people who are infected but have no symptoms are spreading the coronavirus. It does not alter existing recommendations to stay at home unless on essential business and to stay six feet away from others.
“You would be wearing a mask, not as much to protect you, although it may do that a little bit,” Miller said in a Facebook video on Thursday morning. “You would be wearing a mask to protect others if you were shedding the virus asymptomatically or pre-symptomatically.”
The number of lab confirmed cases in Butte County was 10 as of Thursday afternoon, according to Butte County Public Health. But that doesn’t tell the full story: it was unclear how many were sick and waiting for test results, nor was it clear how many were sick or infected but not tested because of the limits on testing.
Miller recommended all individuals wear face coverings, like a bandanna, if they are going outside of their home to a space with other people. Miller himself, for example, said he wears a Buff, a type of neck gaiter.
Miller said N95 masks, which are considered the best at filtering out particles, should still be prioritized for health care workers.
If health care workers, like daily workers not directly working with people who are infected, do not have an N95 mask, he recommended they wear surgical masks.
Previously, most public health officials were not recommending the general population wear face masks or face coverings. That was because there is a shortage of medical face masks and because it was unclear what level of protection face coverings provided to the community at large. But that message has
been increasingly changing in the past couple of days.
The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had not started recommending widespread use of face coverings as of Thursday morning. But Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the administration was considering it. Some local leaders, including the mayor of Los Angeles, have begun officially recommending face coverings this week.
Local health care workers have been accepting donations of medical and nonmedical masks. Donations to Enloe Medical Center can be made at 1444 Magnolia Ave. in Chico from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The hospital asks that people call 332-7160 before donating to ensure the items are a good fit and meet the established guidelines.