Gov. Laura Kelly (D) announced in a statement on Monday that people in Kansas will be required to wear face masks while in public due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Driving the news: The order, effective this Friday, comes as several states are seeing spikes in COVID-19 cases following local economies reopening from lockdown.
- "This is a simple, proactive step we can take to keep Kansans at work, get our kids back to school, and keep ourselves and our neighbors healthy," Kelly said.
The big picture: Other states to have introduced mandatory measures for face masks are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington.
- The District of Columbia has also introduced measures on face coverings.
Go deeper: Mask mandates may have prevented hundreds of thousands of coronavirus cases
