The percentage of Wyoming residents regularly using face masks while in public is the lowest in the country, according to a survey conducted by Carnegie Mellon University.
The results of the survey conducted by the university’s Delphi group showed that of those responding to the survey on Monday, 65.6% said they wear face mask most or all of the time while in public to slow the spread of coronavirus.
The percentage puts Wyoming in 51st place in the survey of all 50 states and Washington, D.C., directly behind South Dakota and Idaho at at 75%. Placing first for mask use is Washington, D.C., where 97.2% of the survey’s respondents said they use masks regularly.
The Delphi group updates its survey every day, using Facebook to direct about 70,000 people nationally to its survey website. The group’s data said on Monday, about 576 Wyoming residents responded to the survey.
The results of the Carnegie Mellon survey are similar to those of a survey conducted by the University of Wyoming’s Survey and Analysis Center in early October, which showed that of those questioned, 61.3% always or often wear a face mask while in public.
With the number of coronavirus cases rising quickly in Wyoming, the state Department of Health is reminding residents of its recommendations to use face masks at any time while in public.
“Clearly we think it’s important for people to follow our recommendations,” said Kim Deti, a spokeswoman for the department. “We’ve been clear about their importance for some time now.”
