Francisco Hernández’s voice sounds raspy, and his words halting as he pauses for frequent breaths. “I’d like ... people to ... realize ... they need ... to ... wear a mask,” he says in Spanish to a reporter from his room inside a COVID-19 unit at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital in Salinas, Calif. on Jan. 14, 2021. Hernández, 48, is a divorced father of two, and lives alone in Moss Landing, Calif. He works in a vegetable processing plant. He was discharged from the hospital on Jan. 21 after spending eight days with COVID-19.