Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, has set out three simple personal guidelines for when to continue wearing face masks after the Covid restrictions have been lifted.
Boris Johnson and Whitty were asked at Monday’s Downing Street press conference what circumstances they would still use face coverings after 19 July.
Johnson said he wanted to move away from “government diktat”. But then Whitty offered a three-part rule of thumb for continuing to wear a mask: in crowded indoor spaces; when required to by an authority; or to make someone else feel comfortable.
He said these situations were all particularly important at a time when “the epidemic is significant and rising”.
Whitty said: “The first is in any situation is indoors and crowded, or indoors with close proximity to other people. And that is because masks help protect other people.”
He added: “The second situation is if I was required to by any competent authority … And the third reason is if someone else was uncomfortable if I did not wear a mask – as a point of common courtesy.”
The chief scientist, Sir Patrick Vallance, endorsed the approach. He added: “Masks are most effective at preventing somebody else catching the disease from you, and they have some effect to prevent you catching it.”
He also played down fears that the upcoming European Championship semi-final at Wembley would be a super-spreading event. Vallance said: “It’s very often not the big outdoor environments, it’s the indoor environments with crowded spaces that become the risk of spreading, and that’s where most super-spreading events have occurred.”
Whitty’s three rules of thumb for continued mask wearing come after several cabinet ministers, including Robert Jenrick and George Eustice, have indicated they will not be wearing masks after restrictions are lifted.
Johnson said his own mask wearing “will depend on the circumstances”. He said: “What we’re trying to do is move from universal government diktat, to rely on people’s personal responsibility.
“Clearly there’s a big difference between travelling on a crowded tube train and sitting late at night in a virtually empty carriage on the main railway line. So what we want to do is for people to exercise their personal responsibility, but to remember the value of face coverings both in protecting themselves, and others.”
