Updated April 8, 12:30 p.m.
Princeton Urges Employers to Comply with CDC Guidance on Face Coverings
This letter is to call on all employers in Princeton to immediately take steps to comply with the recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidance on the use of face coverings.
It is critical that everyone in Princeton do their part to fight this pandemic by implementing strict protocols to slow the rate of transmission of the novel coronavirus. For businesses, this includes ensuring that their employees are supplied with—and wear—face coverings when at work. It also includes encouraging customers to do the same.
The latest guidance from the CDC states that “a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms (‘asymptomatic’) and that even those who eventually develop symptoms (‘pre-symptomatic’) can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms. This means that the virus can spread between people interacting in close proximity—for example, speaking, coughing, or sneezing—even if those people are not exhibiting symptoms.” The CDC therefore advises everyone to “wear cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.” This includes landscapers, construction workers, and store clerks. It also includes any member of the public when out of the home.
Accordingly, we are calling on all owners and managers of stores or companies that deal with the public to implement the following measures:
- Ensure that all of their workers are supplied with face coverings, and require them to wear them while on the job
- Post signage to inform customers that your workers are wearing coverings to protect the customers
- Encourage customers to wear facial coverings as well
The use of facial coverings by all who are out in public, whether by choice or in order to work, will have a material impact in preventing exposure to others. Although cloth coverings might not fully protect the wearer, they do help limit transmission of the virus to others. Widespread use of face coverings by employees and customers alike will protect us all by helping to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus and thus protect us all.