Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania speaks at a new conference at Pennsylvania Emergency Management Headquarters where he said he was ordering schools and other facilities to close in a suburban Philadelphia county, Montgomery County, that has been hard-hit by the COVID-19, Thursday, March 12, 2020 in Harrisburg, Pa.

Pennsylvania residents should wear a cloth mask in public to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, the governor said Friday, as the state recorded another single-day high in new cases and passed 100 deaths.

Gov. Tom Wolf, noting the federal government is readying guidance on the wearing of masks, urged Pennsylvanians to make their own and wear them when they go to the grocery store, pharmacy and other places where people congregate.

“Wearing a mask will help us cut down the possibility that we might be infecting an innocent bystander, like that grocery store cashier, the pharmacist, or someone stocking shelves,” he said in a video news conference.

“These folks are keeping us alive by getting us the supplies we need,” he said. “We owe it to them to do everything we can to keep them safe. Right now, that means wearing a mask.”

Wolf urged residents to heed his order to remain at home, noting that masks “are not foolproof. So it’s critical our first act is to ask if we really need to leave our house.”

He added that residents should refrain from buying the short-supply N95 respirator masks worn by healthcare workers.

The Department of Health posted guidance on masks on its website.

Earlier Friday, Pennsylvania said it would stop paying about 9,000 state workers whose offices have been closed as a result of the pandemic.

Local effort

Locally, an initiative to create masks for health care workers, organized by Renfrew chiropractor Stuart Surkosky, has set up a GoFundMe through the Butler AM Rotary to accept monetary donations that will go toward purchasing materials and supplies for volunteers sewing the masks.

“Since the announcement of the Community Health Protection Initiative, we have been receiving calls requesting masks from health care centers, age homes, and not-for-profit agencies,” Surkosky said. “The demand is very high, so we need to get the message out to rally community volunteers and organize their efforts to produce protective quality masks following our updated guide.”

The guide can be found at www.carechiro.com and butleramrotary.com. The fundraiser can be found at www.gofundme.com/f/community-health-protection-initiative.