Doctors say wearing masks more important now than ever

There is a new push in Flagler County to encourage people to wear face coverings as cases spike in Florida.

The state sent the Flagler County Health Department a shipment of 67,000 face masks. Medical Director Dr. Steven Bickel calls them crucial right now.

“Masks are more important now than in any stage of our fight against this because now as we open up, if we don’t keep this under control, it’s gonna get bad,” he said.

Friday, the state hit a daily record with 1,900 cases. Governor Desantis said that’s in part to increased testing.

“We're doing three times as many tests a day now than at the end of March which is part of the numbers,” he said. 

Dr. Bickel worries people are becoming complacent.

“The problem is let's say this trend continues and things keep getting worse.... it’s like what are we going to do next? Are we going to go back into a lock down? We don’t want to do that. We care most about health, but we don’t want to do that to the community,” he said.

Some wonder just that - could we go back into lock down. Dr. Bickel said that’s hard to judge, but he said he doesn’t see the virus going away any time soon.

“You know, I see it being here the rest of the year,” he said.

He added even 60 percent of a community wearing face coverings could help, but he said the goal is 100 percent.