Dubuque, Iowa, June 10, 2020 — The Dubuque County Board of Health has adopted the “Mask of Wellness” employer initiative as a recommended, voluntary approach to promote COVID Conscious Businesses and a COVID Conscious Community.
The Mask of Wellness is a positive, empowering approach for adjusting to life with COVID-19 in an open economy, prior to the availability of a vaccine. It is intended to boost consumer and employee confidence knowing an employer is following three basic COVID Conscious practices of Masks, Hygiene, and Health.
1) Wear Masks in all public and shared workspaces.
2) Hygiene – regularly wash your hands for 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer, routinely sanitize frequently-touched surfaces, and physically distance yourself from other employees and patrons.
3) Daily Health self-certification by employees.
Dr. Bobby Koneru, medical liaison on the Board of Health said “it is well known in medicine that the optimal approach to a certain pathology involves not one, but a combination of interventions. The same is true to tackle our current pandemic. A combination of vital measures which include hand hygiene, masks, and screening should be incorporated into our daily routine to stay safe as we reopen our economy for business.”
More detailed information on each of these recommended wellness practices is available at www.maskofwellness.com. Employers wanting to learn more, and to sign up for free, should visit the website and download the toolkit and graphics. Once registered, participating employers will be listed in the website’s business directory and identified on an interactive map with a pin.
The Board of Health is also pleased to have partnered with numerous economic and community development organizations around the County to help promote this initiative. The Mask of Wellness is a public-facing initiative that is compatible to the “Safe at Work in Greater Dubuque” toolkit of CDC and IDPH best practices. www.greaterdubuque.org/covid19/safe-at-work
The Mask of Wellness initiative was started in May 2020 by Dr. David Krupp and Dr. Robbie Schwenker in Johnson County as a free, voluntary, simple safety method following current CDC guidelines to help the economy reopen while maintaining healthy practices for the public.
