Northern Virginia health care systems have a simple message when it comes to fighting and preventing COVID-19: Wear a mask.
Four of the region’s health care organizations, HCA Northern Virginia (including Dominion, Reston, and Stone Springs Hospitals), Inova Health System, Novant Health UVA Health System and Virginia Hospital Center, have recently joined forces to promote a new public service campaign called “Wear a mask.”
Launched on Aug. 12, featuring print, digital and social media messages in English and Spanish, the campaign’s aim is to encourage the public to wear masks in places where people gather, as chief medical officers from all four health care organizations agree that COVID-19 surges occur in communities when masks are not worn in public spaces.
“We are in this battle against COVID-19 together,” said Thomas Taghon, D.O., chief medical officer at Reston Hospital Center, in a recent press release. “It doesn’t matter your political affiliation, what you do for a living, who you work for, where you live or how much money you have, COVID-19 is an equal opportunist when it comes to infecting people.”
Stephen J. Motew, M.D., chief of clinical enterprise at Inova Health System, added: “In Northern Virginia, we are succeeding, which is one of the reasons we have been able to progress to phase three. Infection and death rates in the region have remained stable and relatively low, but we are not out of the woods.”
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