VIDEO: Masks gaining in popularity despite discouragement from health authorities

With the number of COVID-19 cases continuing to rise, an increasing number of people are choosing to wear some kind of face mask when they venture out of the house. With real surgical masks in short supply, some people have taken to making their own.

And for Wenelda Zurrin of Lake Country, it's become a cottage industry.

Despite discouraging words coming from public health officials, Zurrin is undeterred.

"I made it for my dad and for me, just to go around town," and she said people soon started asking if she could make a few more."Since then I've made over a hundred of them."

Public health authorities have generally discouraged the use of even proper surgical style masks as a way for people to protect themselves.

"We don't recommend that people who are well wear them because it is not an effective way of protecting yourself," said BC Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry. But she is recommending them for people who are ill. "If you need to be out when you're sick, then putting a mask on keeps your droplets in and protect others from you," she said.

Yet people in the medical profession are often seen wearing them and that has many people following suit. "It's interesting," said one woman seen in a Kelowna parking lot today, covered head-to-toe including a surgical mask. "You see healthcare workers all wearing them."

Another woman seen wearing a mask in Kelowna said she worries about her underlying conditions. "It's better than nothing," she said.

"The mask, I think does make a difference," said another Kelowna resident. "And if it doesn't, I'm not hurting anyone by wearing it."

Zurrin closed with this point. "Most of the people who have been buying them," she said, "actually work in the health industry."