Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim says the city is making non-medical grade face masks available to the public to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Ganim spent Thursday and Friday mornings handing out free surgical masks at McLevy Green and other locations around Bridgeport. He says he still wants everyone to stay home unless it's absolutely necessary, but have the mask handy if you do have to go out.

"We're going to be giving these out at the school sites along with the bag and grab meals to families," says Ganim. "We have 2,000 donated today through our Councilman Alfredo Castillo. We're going to have 20,000 more. I want these distributed throughout the city, I want people to start wearing these when they go out in public. It seems to be that the experts have come down more strongly on the side of that the right thing to do is to wear the masks and of course the gloves."

The masks were distributed at the 21 schools participating in the school meal distribution program from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.