With Covid-19 variants lurking out there it's important to up your mask game.

The Monterey County Health Department announced yesterday that up to 70 percent of the Covid-19 virus circulating in the county is the L452R variant. It's been linked to some big outbreaks in California but it's not known yet how it will interact with vaccines.

It serves as a good reminder that variants are out there. Some of them can be more transmissible, more virulent and resistant to treatment or vaccines. It's not the time to let your guard down and stop doing all the things we've been told to do for nearly a year now: Stay home as much as possible; keep your distance; wash your hands.

The guidance that came down a little later was that wearing facial coverings—even cloth masks—is an effective method of preventing the spread of Covid. As more studies are conducted, the evidence continues to mount that masks help lower the spread of the virus among communities. They protect both the wearer and the people around them.

It's not just a good idea, it's also required in public by Monterey County, ever since last April.

But not all masks are created equal and there's some right ways and wrong ways to wear them.

The worst place to start is with a bandana, which provides little to no protection. The latest advice is that single-layer cotton masks are not good enough. If you’re wearing cloth masks, layer them with hospital masks, if you can afford it. Those masks are widely available in stores, and if you can buy in bulk the cost per mask is less. The key is to get a tight fit.

If you can afford KN95 masks or N95 masks, that’s also a good option. Make sure you’re ordering the real thing and not counterfeit masks, which make up 60 percent of the masks on the market, the CDC estimates. 

The Food and Drug Administration has a list of masks that have received emergency use authorization for use during the pandemic. Don't buy anything that claims to be approved by the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), that’s a dead giveaway it’s fake. The real ones don't advertise themselves that way. And don't double layer these types of masks. (Same goes for hospital masks. Only layer with cloth masks.)

The CDC does not recommend reusing hospital masks and there is currently no CDC-approved method of reusing N95 and KN95 masks but it’s being done, including in hospitals using certain professional sterilization methods. For the rest of us there is lots of advice on the internet that varies. One suggestion mentioned often is placing a single mask in a paper bag and letting it sit for several days letting all the germs die. Rotate several masks using that method.

How many times can you get away with reusing these masks? Probably only two or three times based on some advice available. If they get soiled at all, toss them. The CDC suggests combining with a face shield to prevent soiling from the outside.