Mahoning Valley - Chief Medical Officer Dr. James Kravec of Mercy Health Youngstown said it's important to remember using a face covering to fight COVID-19 and using a face mask to keep warm in the winter are two separate ideas.

He said COVID-19 face masks need to stay dry in order to be effective. 

"If someone is wearing their face mask and it gets wet, either from themselves or from the moisture in the environment, you just really need to change up those masks and wash them if they're washable," Kravec said, "Change them more frequently... I think this is something we need to think about now that it's colder."

He said it's important to remember scarves and masks made to keep people warm cannot replace an approved COVID-19 face covering.

"You can't use your staying warm face mask for covid necessarily, but you can use your face mask for covid to stay warm, but then it might become less effective if it gets wet," he said. 

He said those with health conditions who may need additional coverage in the cold should layer a scarf or other material to keep warm as normal and can do so over their mask.

With winter arriving, Kravec says mask hygiene is even more important than ever before, especially with a spike in coronavirus cases.

"Just continue to push on the importance of face masks as we're seeing an incredible spike of hospitalizations and positive cases in the community," he said, "Face masks are now more important than ever."