LONDON – Hand sanitizer, social distancing and limits on the number of people anywhere: precautions against coronavirus have been ubiquitous in the UK. However, there is one notable exception: the masks.
The politically tense conversation about the masks that took place in the United States was absent in England. Since the blockade began to lift here last month, it has been rare to see the country’s top politicians or royalty in masks, and according to opinion polls, few people on the street have been wearing them.
At last, that could now be changing.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Tuesday that the masks will be mandatory in stores and supermarkets beginning Friday, July 24. Anyone caught in a store without one could have to pay a fine of £ 100 ($ 125), although children and people with disabilities are exempt.
“There is increasing evidence that wearing a covered face in an enclosed space helps protect people and those around them from the Coronavirus,” said a spokesman for 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence.
“The prime minister has been clear that people should wear face shields in stores and we will make it mandatory starting July 24.”
Scotland, which sets its own health policies, has already made masks in stores mandatory, following countries like Germany, Spain, Italy and Greece.
Johnson has repeatedly hinted that a change in mask orientation is looming, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also pressured the national government to require masks in public places. Masks are already required on public transport in England and Scotland, but not yet in Wales until July 27.
Britain has the highest number of deaths in Europe in the pandemic, with almost 45,000 coronavirus-related deaths and almost 290,000 reported cases.
It is also far behind Italy, Spain, France and Germany in the number of people who wear masks when they are in public, according to YouGov polls. In early July, 36 percent of UK respondents said they wore a mask in public places, compared to 83 percent in Italy and 86 percent in Spain, the worst-affected countries in Europe after the Kingdom United.
“The UK government has a history of doing things quite late in the day, starting from closure, PPE, testing, tracing, and isolation, it seems to be part of a pattern,” said Susan Michie, professor of health psychology at University College. London and a member of an expert group that publishes pandemic-related research in an attempt to change government policy.
“There is no tradition or culture of wearing face covers, so we are starting off on the back foot. More needs to be done to make it routine behavior compared to other countries where they are more used to this.”
After reopening its doors after closing, Little Apple Bookstore in York asked all customers entering its 400-square-foot store to wear masks. The response in the first week was shock and even anger from some customers.
“We thought it was common sense and we didn’t think it would be controversial at all,” said owner Philippa Morris. “We opened up and we were very surprised that some people thought it was strange.”
However, over the past week, Morris said that changed. “Now that people come to town more, they say they like it,” he said.
Projections from the Institute for Health Measurement and Assessment in Seattle show that adopting universal masks in the UK could lead to around 20,000 fewer deaths in November.
A model published by the Royal Society also found that the masks could significantly reduce the spread of the virus.
“One of the key features of this outbreak is that people are asymptomatic for a period of time, but can still infect others,” said Richard Stutt, one of the authors of the paper and a postdoctoral research associate in epidemiology and modeling. Cambridge University group.
“We found that it was at least twice as effective for people to wear masks all the time than after they became symptomatic.”
For Ben Walker, a teacher of children with special needs in the city of Hull, in the north-east of England, wearing a mask in public feels strange when not wearing it at work. He said his school discouraged teachers from wearing masks all the time so that students could more easily connect with them.
Walker, however, said that with clearer messages from the government, he would be willing to wear a mask when he went out to the public.
“There is a real lack of clarity on the part of the government in this country, England specifically, around the use of face masks,” he said, “and that creates difficulties for many people.”
Caroline Radnofsky contributed
