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The City of Milwaukee and MaskUpMKE have partnered to provide masks to HOP riders to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Ricardo Torres Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Hop riders who forget their masks at home can now get a free mask on any of the streetcars. The City of Milwaukee and MaskUpMKE have partnered to provide masks to riders to reduce the spread of the coronavirus with funding provided from the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County. The Hops traveling trolleys are spreading the news, not the virus, with MaskUpMKE advertisement and offering free face masks to everyone on board, said Loretta Kryshak of Rebel Converting LLC and founder of MaskUpMKE. Mayor Tom Barrett encouraged residents and visitors to wear masks when out in the city. The most important thing we can do as a city is to unite around a common goal of defeating this virus and bringing our economy back to where it should be, Barrett said. One of the things that we can do in a patriotic sense and a community sense is to wear our masks when interacting with other people. City Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said people need to get used to wearing masks and credits the decrease in the positivity rate to masks. The city instituted a mask mandate in July. At that point in time, our positivity rate was at 9% range, Kowalik said. But now were in the low 7%. Just between July to now, in a month, weve made some great progress and we attribute the gains that have been made to wearing masks. Read more