Mask- Up Illinois!
This website is not affiliated with the State of Illinois. To reach the official State of Illinois website, go to: www.dph.illinois.gov
Help a neighbor, help a friend, help your family... help yourself!
Mask- Up Illinois is here to help our patients and fellow Illinoisans understand why we need to wear masks and the correct way to wear a mask for it to be effective.
This is the latest information from local Medical Experts
actively tracking the virus.
As you can see from this CDC image of a person wearing a mask, it is very effective for keeping your germs from making their way to other people. When you combine mask usage with social distancing, avoiding gatherings of large groups, frequent hand washing and disinfecting surfaces- we have a lot of control for slowing the spread of COVID-19. If we can continue to slow the spread, we can manage actual infections. This requires the help of every single person in Illinois, throughout the country and even the world.
I'm healthy and I don't have any health concerns so why do I have to worry about this?
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For several reasons (here are just 3 of them):
1. The experts don't know everything about this new disease and there have been many cases of healthy people contracting the virus and dying or becoming very sick, some for weeks and months.
2. You may have a condition not yet discovered by your Physicians that can leave you vulnerable to the virus.
3. We need to slow the spread because this is a highly contagious disease and you could have it with little to no symptoms, therefore, you could unknowingly spread it to someone else and they could get very ill and even die as a result.
Why do I hear so many different directives and guidelines about COVID- 19? I don't know who to believe!
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That's a very fair question. However, the State of Illinois has created guidelines based on information from some of the country's leading Epidemiologists and Medical Experts. Initially back in February and March of 2020, the entire world struggled with finding answers on how to manage the virus so every place had a lot of confusion and there was a lot poor politics infused into the conversation. Illinois quickly found a compromise where the State can be "opened up" for business and economic purposes while minimizing the risks of major ourbreaks that would again overwhelm the healthcare systems. This is only able to be done as steadily as it has been because the majority of Illinoisans, especially in highly populated areas, continue to wear a mask, socially distance, wash hands frequently and avoid gathering in large groups especially indoors.
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