Montgomery County begins Mask Up campaign

ARDMORE, Penn. - In Montgomery County, as in everywhere else, officials want people to mask up.

Joanna Charlton, her two children and her nieces and nephews out for ice cream in Ardmore. Everyone masked up, even the little ones.

“Better to be safe than sorry. I don’t mind. They don’t mind,” Charlton stated.

Tamyra Meyers knows it’s important to have a face covering, now more than ever.

“It’s harder to breath with the heat, but in order to protect myself and protect others, it’s fine with me,” Meyers said.

Montgomery County wants to drive home the message – masks save lives. County leaders launching a “Mask Up Montco” campaign, asking businesses to hang signs in their windows and folks to share on social media.

“It’s critical. The modeling that’s been done in some of the studies that we could literally prevent tens of thousands of cases if everybody has a mask on,” Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, Montgomery County Health Commissioner, explained.

Dr. Arkoosh is a physician with a Masters Degree in Public Health. She says more is known today about COVID-19 than 18 weeks ago.

“This virus is airborne, which means you can transmit it through the air. It doesn’t have to be direct contact with respitory droplets, but they can hang in the air for some period of time,” Dr. Arkoosh added.

Because people with no symptoms can be contagious and transmit the virus, Dr. Arkoosh says what people do today will impact what happens a month from now.

“The way the virus is transmitted and length of time is sort of germinates before it actually becomes symptomatic, it’s really about a month later,” Dr. Arkoosh said.

That’s why teens in Montgomery County say they will mask up, like it or not.

“I feel like it’s important not to spread it and have life move on because I want to go to college in the fall, so it’s important to wear the mask,” stated Tara Gallagher.

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