Donald Trump said he will wear a mask when he visits US troops at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington this weekend.
The US president, who has not been seen masked in public since the Covid-19 pandemic started in March, said he expected to wear a mask at the hospital.
“I expect to be wearing a mask when I go into Walter Reed. You’re in a hospital setting. I think it’s a very appropriate thing. I have no problem with a mask,” Mr Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“I think it’s fine to wear a mask out if it makes you feel comfortable,” added the president, who said “certain conditions” would make masks appropriate in public, such as visiting a hospital.
The president will meet wounded soldiers and healthcare workers managing Covid-19 when he travels to the Walter Reed Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, on Saturday.
There is no indication Mr Trump will be photographed wearing a mask when he meets patients on the visit.
An unconfirmed photo aired on MSNBC in May appearing to show the president masked on a Michigan Ford plant tour, when he told reporters that “[he] didn’t want to press to get the pleasure of seeing it”.
Those comments were criticised at the time, which contravened US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advice issued in April.
“I have no problem with a mask. I don’t think you need one when you’re tested all the time, everybody around you is tested, you’re quite a distance,” added Mr Trump on Thursday.
Health experts have, however, complained that Trump supporters now have doubts over masks.
“The problem there is that the issue has become a political issue and people have lost sight of the fact that the enemy is the virus,” said Houston Health Department authority Dr David Persse to The New York Times. “People have decided that the enemy is some sort of a political agenda.”
As new Covid-19 cases continue to surge – with more than 60,5000 across the United States on Thursday – Republican governors and lawmakers have started to advocate wearing masks in public.
