Research shows that fluids spread when coughing/sneezing are a big transmitter of COVID-19. Each of us needs to do what we can to stop the spread. One easy thing we all can do, today, is wear homemade masks in public. My mask could help you, your mask could help me. #Masks4All pic.twitter.com/6JGNNMtdJD — Senator Pat Toomey (@SenToomey) March 29, 2020

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is encouraging Lehigh Valley residents to cover their nose and mouth with makeshift masks on the chance they have the coronavirus and could inadvertently spread it.

The advice, which came in a recorded tweet Saturday evening by Toomey, R-Pa., tells Lehigh Valley residents to follow a popular catchphrase trending on social media titled, “Masks4All.” The hashtag takes users on social media to tutorials and other information on how to craft their own basic face masks, which can be used as hands-free sneeze guards while traveling to grocery stores and other essential businesses.

“Sometimes people ask me what can I do, what can I do personally to help?” Toomey said in the video. “And there is something that I think we all can do to help slow down the rate at which this virus is transmitted among us.”

Toomey suggests DIY pieces -- stitched together with a few layers of cotton, elastic straps and, on some ambitious designs, a flexible bridge over the nose. These makeshift masks can provide a barrier if someone at a store is carrying things with both arms and has to sneeze or cough, Toomey said.

“I think it’s a really important and a really constructive idea,” Toomey said.

Many authorities still advise only people with symptoms to wear masks. This doesn’t help with a virus like COVID-19, since a person who does not yet show symptoms may still be contagious, Toomey said.

“We all know and we’ve all hopefully observe that if you sneeze or you cough, you sneeze into your arm and you cover your cough and that’s for the obvious reason that we don’t want particles that are leaving our mouth or nose to possibly infect someone else," he said. "Many of us could be walking around with the virus. Maybe we have no symptoms, we may never get the symptoms but we might be able to transmit the virus and all the science suggests that the most common method of transmission is the little droplets of fluid that are emitted when we sneeze or cough.”

The World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have both said that only people with COVID-19 symptoms and those caring for them should wear surgical masks, such as a N95 respirator. Toomey stresses in the video he is not suggesting a substitute for those types of masks -- worn by healthcare professionals who are coming in contact with patients testing positive for COVID-19.

By Saturday afternoon, there were a total of 533 new positive cases statewide and 12 total additional deaths. Pennsylvania now has 2,751 total coronavirus cases in 56 counties. Lehigh County has 109 cases and Northampton County has 94 as of Saturday.

Toomey told the public to first follow the advice of Gov. Tom Wolf, who ordered several counties across the state, including the Lehigh Valley on March 25, to stay home. It took effect at 8 p.m. and stays in effect through April 6. However, Toomey said residents will need to leave the house to receive essential items, such as grocery store items and medicine.

“While we can and should continue to observe the social distancing -- that is a really important part of reducing the rate of transmission -- we also could be wearing just a homemade mask or even just a bandana,” Toomey said. "Something that we can put over our nose and mouth so that we reduce the likelihood that droplets from our own breath would inadvertently be inhaled by someone and thereby infect them.”

These types of DIY face masks, Toomey said, were deployed in the Czech Republic and were successful.

“I would encourage people to make sure if you’re going outside, cover up," he said. "Cover your nose and mouth. My mask will keep someone else safe and their mask will keep me safe. I’m not suggesting that this is any kind of guarantee and it probably doesn’t have tremendous value for the person wearing the mask. But it probably does significantly reduce the risk that people could inadvertently transmit it.”

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. If there’s anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.