Biden Calls For National Mandatory Mask Order to Assist US in Overcoming Pandemic

The presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee’s comments come as the United States is witnessing a resurgence of coronavirus (COVID-19) infections since late June, with the nation seeing over 166,000 dead.

The former US vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, on Thursday called on all US state governors to “immediately” issue a mandatory order to enforce the wearing of masks in public places “for the next three months at a minimum” to assist the nation in slowing the spread of the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Thursday, only 34 US states are currently mandating face-covering in public places.

The former vice president also urged Americans to “do the right thing” and wear masks in public, not only to protect themselves, but also to “protect your fellow citizens”.

Senator Harris reacted to Biden’s remarks, saying, “That’s what real leadership looks like”, stressing the importance of wearing protective masks.

The former vice president, as well as many Democrats and some GOP lawmakers, have repeatedly criticized the administration of Republican President Donald Trump for its “poor” handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Citing the high number of COVID causalities in the US, Biden said that he hopes “the president has learned a lesson”.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed the necessity of wearing face-coverings during the pandemic, insisting that wearing masks is “a double-edged sword”, and left it to governors to decide whether to require masks in their states.

In mid-July, during a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, Trump was seen for the first time in public wearing a protective mask.

On Tuesday, the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, announced that he had chosen California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket in the November 2020 election against Republican President Donald Trump and his VP, Mike Pence. Biden described Harris as a “fearless fighter” and “one of the country’s finest public servants”.

As of Thursday, the United States has registered over 5,240,000 COVID-19 infections, and at least 166,956 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University coronavirus data.

Sourse: sputniknews.com