CDC offers face covering guidelines

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain such as the grocery store or pharmacy, but especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.

Not everyone has quilting fabric or a sewing machine and the CDC has taken that into account as it offers information about creating three different homemade face cover options.

“Cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under age 2, anyone who has trouble breathing or is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the cloth face covering without assistance,” noted a CDC document.

The CDC does not recommend surgical masks or N-95 respirators. “Those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for health care workers and other medical first responders,” noted the document.

To care for masks, they should be routinely washed based on the frequency of use. A washing machine should suffice in properly washing a cloth face covering.