With COVID-19 cases on the rise, Illinois doctors are urging people to wear masks in public to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Doctor Robert Panton, president of the Illinois State Medical Society, said wearing a mask is about protecting the community.
“When you see someone with a mask you might say, that person’s mask protects me and my mask protects them. It’s symbiosis that we all help each other and that we all protect each other,” he said. “We protect ourselves, but even more so we protect others by not transmitting any potential coronavirus we might have.”
It is possible to transmit coronavirus even if you’re not showing symptoms. Governor Pritzer has signed an executive order requiring people over the age of two to wear a mask when in public places where social distancing is not possible.