How To Wear a Face Mask the Correct Way

Clean your hands. Before putting on your face mask, wash your hands or clean them with sanitizer.
Grab the mask by the ear strings. The cloth part of your mask is the part that would come in direct contact with the virus particles, so you should handle your mask by the ear strings. This also applies when taking off your mask.

Cover your mouth, nose and chin with the mask. Only covering your mouth with a face mask does not completely protect you from spreading or becoming infected with COVID-19, because droplets infected with the virus can settle in your mouth and nose. “Most droplets come out of your mouth when speaking, but droplets can come out of your nose, too while breathing. That’s why people should cover their nose and their mouth,” Dr. Graham said.
Check for gaps. A properly sized face mask will have minimal gaps under the chin and at the sides. Noticeable gaps between your skin and the mask can allow infected droplets to slip in and out.

When removing your face mask, repeat steps 1 and 2. You wear your mask to protect yourself from harmful germs. Not taking proper precaution when removing your face mask could actually undo all that work that your mask did for you.
Fold the outside corners together. This keeps any infected particles on the outside of your mask from spreading throughout your home, car or wherever you take off your mask.

There are extra considerations to be aware of when correctly wearing a disposable mask, also called a medical mask or surgical mask. Make sure the side of the mask with the bendable wire goes over your nose, not your chin, and molds to the shape of your nose to prevent air from leaking out of the top of the mask. When determining which side of the mask faces out, look at the color of both sides. The white side is usually the inside of the mask, and the colored side should face outward. The CDC recommends folding and tucking disposable masks to improve their fit.