San Francisco to require residents wear face masks in public

In this Thursday, April 16, 2020 photo face masks, that people can wear during the new coronavirus outbreak, are offered in a tailor shop in Berlin, Germany. The masks for mouth and nose are offerd for a price of 8 Euros each and made of 100% Cotton that can be washed by 60 degree celcius. less In this Thursday, April 16, 2020 photo face masks, that people can wear during the new coronavirus outbreak, are offered in a tailor shop in Berlin, Germany. The masks for mouth and nose are offerd for a price ... more Photo: Michael Sohn, AP Photo: Michael Sohn, AP Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close San Francisco to require residents wear face masks in public 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

The city of San Francisco will begin requiring face masks for everyone over the age of 12 out in public beginning at 11:59 p.m. tonight, Mayor London Breed announced Friday afternoon.

The new requirement means any person inside or in an enclosed space — such as when utilizing public transit, waiting in a grocery store line or at a store or pharmacy — will be required to wear a mask. These should not be N95 masks, Breed clarified, but rather cloth masks, scarves or handkerchiefs covering a person’s nose and mouth.

The masks are not explicitly required, Breed added, when an individual is exercising outside.

“If someone is out and walking and they’re with other … people in your household, or you’re running and exercising or something out in the open and you’re social distancing, that is not as problematic as when you’re standing in line and you’re in another location where there are a lot of people,” Breed said.

Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, stated Friday that several other counties would be making similar announcements Friday, following suit with Sonoma and Marin Counties and the city of Fremont.

MORE: San Francisco forced people to wear masks during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Did it help?

“By wearing masks or face coverings when we are interacting with other people in public, San Franciscans will be less likely to transmit the coronavirus to one another,” Colfax said. “It is important to understand that today’s order is part of a broader strategy to establish new ways of interacting and behaving. This will help us now and in the future as we hope to be able to relax the stay at home order.”

Colfax also noted there would be a strong likelihood that locals would need to wear masks “for some time” as the nation continues to battle the coronavirus.

SFMTA Executive Director Jeffrey Tumlin underscored the necessity of bus passengers wearing masks, explaining that a bus operator may pass up a person at a bus stop if they are not wearing a protective mask.

Earlier on Friday, Marin County announced an order for members of the public to also wear masks. As Marin County Public Health Officer Matt Willis said earlier on Friday, it’s going to be “an important part of the new normal.”

“Covering our faces is something we do to protect all of us,” he said. “The decision to cover your face is a decision to support our wellbeing as a community. If we can really do this, if we can get this down, it will help eventually give us more freedom to travel and interact more within our community.”

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Alyssa Pereira is an SFGate digital editor. Email: alyssa.pereira@sfgate.com | Twitter: @alyspereira

