I was reading this NHK article about the coronavirus but there’s a sentence using ように that I can’t seem to wrap my head around the meaning. NEWS WEB EASY|「コロナウイルスがうつる人が日本でまた増え始めた」
会議では、具合が悪い時は出かけないようにしたりマスクをしたりして気をつけるように言っています。
At first I interpreted it as “When you’re feeling sick, don’t go outside” but then the ように confuses me in what I think I’m reading and I’m unsure how to connect the rest of the sentences’ meaning. The grammar sites give tell me the ように is “in order to” but here it seems like it means something else?
There’s two different grammar points here.
~ようにする is to try to/make sure to do something. In this case it’s also combined with ～たり ～たり
する.
~ように言う is an indirect quote, ie when you’re saying someone told someone else something. (‘My doctor told me I needed to lose weight’ as opposed to 'My doctor said, “You need to lose weight,”.)
Basically, the sentence is “At the meeting [they] told [them] to be careful to do things like trying not to go out and to wear a mask when you’re sick.”
It’s just more natural to ask somebody to do something indirectly than using the command form.
Like if your friend is going out drinking you might say
飲みすぎないように…
which just sounds better than commanding them
飲みすぎないで…