A fresh update on whether people should wear face masks when out in public has been issued by 10 Downing Street. It follows comments from a Cabinet minister who said it was "sensible" for those who feel unwell to do so while travelling.
Professor Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), also issued advice on Monday (January 2) saying adults should "wear a face covering" if they have to leave the house while ill. But today (January 3) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman emphasised the advice was "not mandatory" and urged people to "use their good sense".
Mr Sunak’s spokesman said: "Obviously that’s advice they put out. I think that is pretty longstanding advice. It remains health advice to the public — it is not mandatory. People need their judgment. Certainly people will continue to use their good sense, having spent a long time dealing… with these kinds of infectious illnesses."
When asked whether it was really "longstanding" advice for people to wear face coverings if they have a cold, the spokesman said: "That’s not what the advice says. What you’ll see is, as has often been the case, if people are ill, they are advised to stay at home.
"Obviously people can choose to wear a mask if they wish to. It is not compulsory. This is advice from UKHSA rather than government ministers telling people what to do, as we saw during the height of the pandemic before the emergence of vaccines."
Transport Secretary Mark Harper, when asked on LBC about whether he would follow such advice, said that "wearing a mask is very sensible if you are ill". The PA news agency reports that No 10 was asked a similar question about whether Rishi Sunak would consider wearing a face covering while feeling under the weather.
But the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said he had not put the question to Mr Sunak, according to PA. "I imagine it is down to individual circumstances," the spokesman told reporters. The UKHSA handed out the advice this week. This was in a bid to counter high levels of flu, Covid-19 and invasive Strep A disease (iGas).
