Roughly 90% of Central Mass. residents say they always wear face masks
Photo | Grant Welker
Signs enforcing the indoor mask mandate at Shaw's supermarket
When it comes to reassuring coronavirus numbers, Central Massachusetts has been in a good place for the past couple months, with case loads far below the spring peak and so far remaining there while other parts of the country see skyrocketing numbers.
There's another promising data set: Central Massachusetts residents are more likely than most to say they always wear a mask or other face covering any time they're outside and expect to be within six feet of another person.
That rate hits roughly 90% in some Central Massachusetts cities and towns, according to a July survey in early of 250,000 people by the Texas data and survey firm Dynata and The New York Times.
The highest rates locally are 91% in Boxborough and 90% in Bolton, Hudson, East Brookfield and North Brookfield. Elsewhere, 87% in Leominster said they always wear masks, 85% in Southborough and 85% in Fitchburg. Upton appeared to have the highest rate of people saying they never wear masks when going out, at 6%.
In denser communities, cities and towns were divided into smaller geographic regions. In Worcester, for example, those saying they always wear masks ranged from 72% to 75%.
The survey didn't specify how many people responded in a given geographic area.
In some rural parts of the country, including in the South where cases have been at their highest levels during the pandemic, residents said they're far less likely to wear a mask all the time. In some cases, only about one-third of respondents said they'd always wear one, while in especially sparsely concentrated areas, sometimes more than 20% said they never wear a mask, even while expecting to be close to others.
Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged all Americans to wear masks in an editorial this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus — particularly when used universally within a community setting," Redfield said. "All Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.”
In June, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projected nearly 180,000 coronavirus deaths nationally by Oct. 1 but said those numbers could drop by 33,000, or 18%, if at least 95% of people wear masks in public.
In Massachusetts, where deaths peaked in April and May, the institute estimated deaths through Oct. 1 could fall by 249, or or 3%, if nearly everyone wears a mask. In Florida's case, deaths could be cut in roughly half.
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