News and images of US President Trump wearing a mask for the first time came as a shock, relief and breaking news as the president visited the Walter Reed military hospital outside Washington, where he met wounded soldiers and health care workers.
This was the first time the President was wearing a mask in public since the the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The President has previously resisted calls to wear a mask and even mocked the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for doing so. But on Saturday as he left the Whitehouse, the President said he has never been against masks save for time and place.
“I think when you’re in a hospital, especially in that particular setting, where you’re talking to a lot of soldiers and people that, in some cases, just got off the operating tables, I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask.” said the President.
Wearing masks in the US had almost become a political issue and a culture war in the US generating controversy with some Americans saying wearing them impair individual freedoms. A huge majority of Americans however follow CDC recommendations and wear masks in public to limit the spread of Covid-19.
Public health experts believe the President’s latest action will influence more Americans to wear masks as a way of curbing the spread of corona virus cases which now stand at 12,720,028 globally with 565,178 deaths and 7,005,452 recoveries.
According to figures from John Hopkins University, the US has confirmed 3,247,684 cases and 134,814 deaths, with 995,576 people recovered from the virus. The US has however reported a new daily record of more than 68,000 cases witnessed on Saturday.
In the UK British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared in his constituency for the first time wearing a face mask while in the neighboring Tanzania, President John Pombe Magufuli who has never been seen wearing a face mask has declared his country free of covid 19.
