BREAKING: @GovHolcomb will require masks, starting Monday.
Indiana is 31st state to require #masks. Holcomb notes both numbers and rates of #coronavirus cases are rising, including in counties which hadn't been hotspots previously. "We've worked hard to get where we are....We don't want to have to go back."
Holcomb: one of most important reasons to require #masks is that school is starting. "Kids shouldn't get mixed messages" when they leave school. And science is clear that masks make a critical difference.
Holcomb: masks required for anyone 8 and up. That includes schools, third grade and up, "with exceptions for strenuous physical activities." There are other exceptions, notably medical and eating/drinking.
Holcomb: we've been appealing to civic duty, and will continue to. "The mask police will not be patrolling Hoosier streets," although not wearing a mask is a Class B misdemeanor.
Holcomb: "It's just a simple fact: covering our faces can help us prevent the transmission of the #virus."
The state is also setting specific guidelines for #SchoolReopening (or closing).
Still up to local schools to decide when/whether to reopen.
No accident: the staging for this week's briefing is different. Holcomb is speaking from a lectern in his office, not from the conference table as he usually does. And he opened with his mask in place before taking it off to begin speaking.
1.1 million #masks will be distributed to 228 schools by end of the week; about that many more will be delivered by August 7.
Lindsay Weaver, chief medical officer for @StateHealthIN, now making both the emotional and scientific case for #masks. She notes doctors wear them in the OR all the time, and you'd worry if they didn't. Best info is that it reduces #coronavirus transmission chances by 80%.
Weaver dispels myth that masks increase carbon dioxide in the blood or reduce oxygenation.
Weaver notes anecdotal cases where infected people had lots of contacts but *didn't* spread it because they were wearing masks (airplane passenger, Missouri hair salon).
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