Pennsylvania Game Commission says social media post on orange face mask requirement is fake

The Pennsylvania Game Commission wants to set the record straight after apparent misinformation recently made its rounds on social media.

State officials have not issued a requirement for Pennsylvania hunters to wear fluorescent orange face masks as a recent post has suggested, according to the commission.

“There is a post containing false information circulating on social media, featuring the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s name and logo, stating hunters would be required to wear fluorescent orange face masks while hunting this year,” the commission said in a statement Friday. “This is NOT TRUE. The Pennsylvania Game Commission IS NOT requiring hunters to wear fluorescent orange face masks while hunting this fall.”

A post from Channel22News.com, which encourages users to “create a prank and trick your friends," stated that failure to wear the orange mask would result in a $500 fine or more, while “those who wear no mask at all may forfeit their hunting privileges for up to two years.”

The commission outlined its real fluorescent orange requirements — such as a hat when woodchuck hunting — for hunters on its website. The commission asked residents to help stop the spread of misinformation “by correcting related posts."

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Pennsylvania officials have required residents to wear facial coverings in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, transmitted primarily through person-to-person contact. Earlier this week, state Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said the commonwealth looks to be at “the start of the fall resurgence” of the pandemic.

“Pennsylvania, clearly, is not an island, and we are reflecting what the rest of the country is seeing,” Levine said at a news conference. “We’re certainly seeing a change in the last number of weeks from what we saw before.”

State officials announced 1,857 new COVID-19 cases Saturday, according to the Associated Press.

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