US President, Donald Trump, on Saturday declared that he will not wear a face mask.
This is despite new medical guidance advising people in the country to do so.
Trump said that it doesn’t look nice for him to be greeting “presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens” in the Oval Office while wearing one.
He said the guidance issued on Friday by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the government’s public health advisory agency, on mask wearing in the US, is voluntary.
“You do not have to do it,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to be doing it.”
278,458 cases of COVIID-19 and more than 7,000 deaths have been confirmed in the US.
New York State remains the worst affected area, with nearly 3,000 deaths, and state governor, Andrew Cuomo has appealed for help from other parts of the country.
The country’s health authorities had before now said that only the sick, or those caring for patients of coronavirus, should wear masks, but newer studies suggest that covering up one’s face is important to prevent inadvertent transmission.
Trump had told reporters on Friday that “from recent studies we know that the transmission from individuals without symptoms is playing a more significant role in the spread of the virus than previously understood.”
But after announcing the CDC’s new guidance he said: “I just don’t want to do it myself.”
“Sitting in the Oval Office… I somehow don’t see it for myself.”
