DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – As states like Indiana lift their mask mandates, some public health experts in Ohio believe it’s important to keep our masks on.
“Right now we still have to wear masks, we still have to social distance. That’s gonna be in place, until the numbers go down to a much lower level,” said Dan Suffoletto, public information supervisor for Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County.
Suffoletto also says he feels the safety measures Ohio is taking have put our state in a good place, especially with the number of vaccine doses increasing.
Along with Suffoletto, Dr. Joseph Allen, regional medical director with Premier Health, agrees masks are still important in stopping the virus from spreading. He’s interested in seeing how things play out in states that’ve gotten rid of mask mandates altogether.
“Are we going to see a bump in the numbers? Are we going to see some of these variants take over with a little more impact than they have already,” said Dr. Allen.
Allen says even for those getting vaccinated, there’s still a 3 to 4 percent chance people won’t have immunity, could still get the virus and pass it along to others.
“Until we reach that magic number of heard immunity, once we get heard immunity, the odds of you exposing it to others is so low, we can go without,” said Allen.
