Wear a mask to prevent spread of COVID-19, Dr. Birx says

White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx during a Sunday interview stressed the importance of practicing six-feet of social distancing, and wearing a face mask when social distancing is not possible.

"And out of respect for each other, as Americans that care for each other, we need to be wearing masks in public when we cannot social distance," Birx said during an interview on Fox News Sunday. "It's really critically important. We have the scientific evidence of how important mask wearing is to prevent those droplets from reaching others.

"We know being outside does help, we know sun does help in killing the virus, but that doesn't change the fact that people need to be responsible and maintain that distance," Birx said.

She warned that the virus can spread to others within a six-foot proximity.

"And people aren't intentionally spreading the virus, they don't know they're infected but they come together and they're under that six feet and everybody who gets exposed to that person less than six feet has a chance of becoming infected," she warned.

According to Johns Hopkins University the U.S. coronavirus death toll is more than 97,000.