ILLINOIS (WAND) - Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters he said fines are worth considering at the local level for people who refuse to wear masks in public during the pandemic. 

These remarks came moments after the governor announced a $5 million campaign mask awareness campaign encouraging people to wear masks in public. The state of Illinois plans to use almost every medium of media possible to spread the campaign, which has the tagline "it only works if you wear it" and compares not wearing a mask to not wearing a seat belt in the car or taking off a helmet while on the field playing football. 

The governor said the wearing of masks as COVID-19 spreads should be enforced, but people should be warned first, as sometimes they might have simply forgotten a mask at home or had one in their pocket. The real issue, he said, comes with people who willfully ignore the state's mask mandate, which Illinois put into effect May 1. 

People who refuse to wear a mask, people who are entering public premises where they know they're supposed to wear a mask and who have been reminded, and who aren't - those people certainly should be, you know, reminded again by police and ultimately, if they're absolutely refusing in public, they're putting other people at risk," Pritzker said. "So it's worthy of considering fine(s) at a local level."

Pritzker said the same principle remains true for bars and restaurants. He mentioned it is "very difficult for many owners" to enforce the mandate without having the assistance of authority figures to remind people. 

He added mask reinforcement has worked for "the vast majority of people in Illinois" and said the best thing for leaders to do is "remind people, this is going to keep you healthy and your family healthy."