FACE MASKS

With just over two weeks until most Florida students head back to school, concerns over what COVID-19 safety measures will be in place are once again on parents’ minds.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mayor Lenny Curry ended Duval County’s mask mandate and, in doing so, said businesses can still require customers to wear masks. “I don’t mind frequenting places that are lifting the mask mandate, but I will continue to still wear a mask because of other people,” Eaton said. BB’s Restaurant in San Marco is still requiring customers to wear masks when they enter the restaurant until they are seated. Employees will also continue to wear masks. The Shim Sham Room is no longer requiring its employees or customers to wear masks.

By now, wearing a face mask when you’re out and about or around crowds of people should be nothing new. Here’s what the WHO had to say about using a fabric mask:Wash your hands before putting on the mask. If you need to use the mask again, hold it at the elastic loops when removing it from the bag. If hot water is not available, wash the mask in soap or detergent and room-temperature water, followed by either boiling the mask for 1 minute OR; by soaking the mask in 0.1% chlorine for 1 minute and thoroughly rinsing the mask with room-temperature water (there should not be any toxic residue of chlorine on the mask). Make sure you’re continuing to socially distance yourself from people who aren’t in your household, keep washing those hands and try to avoid touching your face as much as possible.

But that doesn’t mean you have to put up with the annoyances that come from wearing them, such as fogged-up glasses, ear irritation, and even acne. If you wear glasses or sunglasses that are constantly fogging up, a mask with a wire sewn in at the top is your best bet. Next, are you suffering from “mask acne?” When you wear a mask for a long period of time you sweat, which causes bacteria to build up. If you’re having trouble being understood while you’re wearing a mask, CR says it’s not really a matter of speaking louder. Just make sure you’re speaking slowly and clearly, and ask other mask wearers to do the same.

Face masks not only slow the spread of COVID-19 but may also protect people wearing them, too. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its latest guide on the dos and donts of wearing a mask. Do NOT wear masks intended for health care workers for example, N95 respirators. RELATED: Masks 101: Everything from mistakes to avoid to how to store your face covering | CONSUMER REPORTS: Your most pressing questions about masks answered by CRs chief scientistAs for wearing a face shield instead of a face mask, both the CDC and Dickerson agree a face shield can be worn in addition to a face mask, but not on its own. If you dont wear a mask under your face shield, small droplets in the air could be carried up under the shield and land on your nose or mouth, Dickerson said.

This time last year, we were beginning to talk about what kinds of fun costumes and masks we might wear for Halloween. Nowadays, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, masks are an every day, everywhere kind of thing. In an effort to fight the spread of the coronavirus, masks have been mandated for wear in plenty of places, so perhaps your mask has become second nature. That not only makes it a little more fun for those wearing the masks, but for us who are out people-watching (and unable to actually see people’s faces). And perhaps you just might give some others some fun ideas to work with.

Baptist Health put clinical and cloth masks to the test in an effort to show how respiratory particles can be prevented from spread. The illustrated side-by-side photos below demonstrate how masks help to prevent the spread of respiratory particles normally found in the body. In a person infected with COVID-19, these particles could be a vehicle for spreading the virus. Odegard said his results were similar for clinical and cloth masks -- both helped to stop or reduce the spread of respiratory particles. Side-by-side photos show how masks help to prevent the spread of respiratory particles.

The comment has been interpreted by some, including state Sen. Gary Farmer, as suggesting a herd immunity strategy. In a virtual news conference Wednesday, Farmer suggested herd immunity wouldn’t work because there is evidence people can be infected more than once. “This is not like many other viruses, where if you get it once, you develop that immunity,” Farmer said. Dr. Howard Kessler, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility Florida, also warned an estimated seven out of 10 Americans would have to be infected before herd immunity would be reached. Physicians for Social Responsibility Florida argues the best way to slow the spread continues to be face mask mandates.

“Masks prevent particles from my respiratory system from getting into your respiratory system,” Nye said. Surgical mask- Candle NOT blown out. N95 mask - Candle NOT blown out. Surgical mask - Candle blown out. Homemade mask - Candle NOT blown out.

NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – The city of Fernandina Beach announced it will require face masks. The mandate applies to anyone over age 6, who’s in a public indoor space and cannot social distance. Clay, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns County all set daily records for new coronavirus cases on Thursday. RELATED | Jacksonville changes course, issues face mask mandateViolations will be a second-degree misdemeanor that could be punished with a $500 fine and 60 days in jail. The new mandate is to be enforced by the Police Department and is set to expire in 30 days, unless later extended.

Brian Kemp says he has not yet weighed whether the state will take legal action against local governments that try to impose mask requirements, as Georgia faces a spike in confirmed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. The Republican governor held a news conference Wednesday morning before departing on a statewide tour to promote wearing a mask, but said he will not mandate it. A series of executive orders from Kemp have prohibited local governments from setting coronavirus restrictions that go beyond those imposed by the state. Georgia has seen a startling surge in confirmed cases of the coronavirus in recent weeks. Georgia has had nearly 85,000 total confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to data released Wednesday from the state Department of Public Health, though experts say official counts likely only capture a fraction of those infected.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There is opposition against the Republican National Convention coming to Jacksonville in two months. Nearly 200 physicians, who are mostly from northeast Florida, wrote a letter to Mayor Lenny Curry and City Council requesting masks and social distancing at the RNC in August. The letter said it’s estimated more than 40,000 people from all over the country will attend the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena. The nearly 200 physicians who signed the letter said the Republican National Convention should be postponed. Once we do receive a copy of this letter, we will give it consideration as we do any communication that we receive.”

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There so much information circulating about coronavirus and a lot of data and studies -- sometimes with conflicting information -- is coming at us. The Trust Index is here to help sort through those claims along with a photo circulating on social media that gives exact percentages of COVID-19 transmission when wearing a mask or not wearing one. First: The medical community is in agreement that wearing masks is useful in limiting the spread of this virus. Bottom line: The Centers for Disease Control has recommended face coverings for months and still does. As for specific claims, including the graphic you may have seen in your Facebook feed, we’re rating it a “Be Careful.”

In response to the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in Florida and in St. Johns County, City Manager John Regan prepared the ordinance and requested the City Commission meeting, which began at 9:30 a.m. Friday. The ordinanceAt the county level, St. Johns County commissioners on Wednesday urged local businesses to mandate masks through new a program called Pledge St. Johns County. Commissioners do not currently have plans to mandate masks themselves. In most public places, people wearing masks seems to be split. At a news conference Wednesday, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said he has no plans to mandate masks, but he did repeatedly ask people to wear them.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The mayor of Jacksonville and hospital executives from Baptist Health, Ascension St. Vincent’s, UF Health, Mayo Clinic, Brooks Rehabilitation, and Jacksonville’s Naval Hospital held a joint news conference Thursday to encourage the public to wear face masks. Curry cited experts who encourage the use of face coverings indoors in dense public spaces where social distancing is difficult. “It not only protects me and my family, but it protects fellow citizens,” Curry said of wearing a mask. Children under 2, anyone who has trouble breathing, or can’t remove a mask without help, should NOT wear a mask. There is no requirement in Florida that says people must wear a mask, but a recent New Harris Poll found more than half of Americans support mandatory face masks in some form.

More than half of a million hoarded personal protective equipment (PPE) are ready for distribution in New York and New Jersey. The FBI discovered the supplies during an enforcement operation by the Department of Justice’s COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force on March 30. HHS said it will pay the owner of the hoarded equipment pre-COVID-19 fair market value for the supplies. Anyone who learns of hoarding or price gouging of PPE should report it to the National Center for Disaster Fraud by dialing 1-866-720-5721 or emailing disaster@leo.gov. Vendors interested in selling PPE to the federal government should contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It’s the debate heard 'round the world: Should you or shouldn’t you wear a face mask during the coronavirus pandemic? Fauci warned, "You don't want to take masks away from the health care providers who are in a real and present danger of getting infected. Different types of masks under debateIn this debate, there are different types of masks in question: N95 respirator masks, surgical masks and cloth masks, which could be homemade. Those are used to prevent getting the disease from health care workers that are in close proximity to patients with it," Phillips said. “What the World Health Organization and the CDC have reaffirmed in the last few days is that they do not recommend the general public wear masks.

(CNN) – The United States' top doctor has one simple request: Stop buying face masks. US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams' message, posted to Twitter on Saturday, was a response to face mask shortages as people stocked up due to coronavirus concerns. "Seriously people," he began, and though it's a tweet, you can almost hear the exasperation in his plea. "STOP BUYING MASKS!" With coronavirus popping up in the United States, some have begun buying face masks as a form of protection, despite the likes of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Vice President Mike Pence saying they're unnecessary.