Governor JB Pritzker announced on Thursday that Illinois residents will be required to wear protective masks when in public spaces where they can’t maintain a six-foot space of social distancing starting Friday, May 1.
This is in addition to the Governor’s stay at home order which is being extended throughout the month of May.
The order only applies to persons over the age 2. Putting a mask on a young child could cause more harm than good due to their small air passageways according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The effectiveness of the masks are proved to be useful for stopping the spread of COVID19
Peoria Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson during the Health Departments daily briefing on Thursday, spoke about the importance of wearing a mask or face covering.
“The key thing that you want to recognize when you want to do a face covering is that the fit matters. Make sure it’s covering your nose and chin area as well as the sides. You want to make sure you’re preventing air flow from coming from that area.”
She also recommends disposing paper masks in paper bags to prevent moisture from accumulating. As for regular cloth masks, scarves, or bandanas, those should be washed and cleaned routinely.
The world health organization recommends disposing single-use masks as soon as soon as it becomes damp. N95 masks should still be reserved for medical professional use.
This new order will mostly affect grocery stores where the highest chances of social distancing breaking are happening. Grocery stores like HyVee and Kroger have taken precautions to prevent COVID in their stores like disinfecting and deep cleaning. Including one way aisles and limiting the number of customers allowed in the building.
Local HyVee shopper Holly Martin says she didn’t see a lot of people wearing masks a few weeks ago, but after going there this week, almost everyone is. However not everyone respects social distancing.
“A lot of people don’t stand six feet apart from you, even though there are marks on the floor that say so.”
There has been only one case during the pandemic where a person was charged with a felony for breaking social distancing norms by doing a “coughing prank” at a local Aldi in Peoria.
Jodi Hoos, Peoria County State’s Attorney said at Friday’s Health Department briefing she charged that person with two felony counts as well as two misdemeanor counts.
“…There are cases like that, going forward we evaluate and we look at and depending on the circumstances, charges may get filed.”
Stores have required that employees wear masks but whether they turn away customers is another story. It remains to be seen whether individuals not wearing masks in these social spaces will be charged with not complying with the executive order but as Hoos said, it will likely be determined on a case by case basis.