Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered that everyone in the state must wear face coverings in public.
The Wednesday order builds off his previous mandate to wear face coverings while inside of businesses. Wolf, a Democrat, tied the lack of face coverings to increases in COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania.
“This mask-wearing order is essential to stopping the recent increase in COVID-19 cases we have seen in Pennsylvania,” Wolf said in a statement. “Those hot spots can be traced to situations where Pennsylvanians were not wearing masks or practicing social distancing – two practices that must be adhered to if we want to maintain the freedoms we have in place under our reopening.”
Pennsylvania has had more than 90,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including at least 6,701 deaths, according to the latest tally by the New York Times. Although the number of new cases in the state has fallen since May, the new case count has increased slightly over the past week or so along with other states across the country.
“It is essential that Pennsylvanians wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” said state health chief Rachel Levine. “While cases increase in some areas, we cannot become complacent. My mask protects you, and your mask protects me.”
The United States leads the world in sheer numbers of confirmed cases, with more than 2.6 million infections and at least 127,762 deaths as of Wednesday evening.
