Coronavirus: Austria, in a shift, requires mask-wearing in supermarkets to cut pandemic’s spread
- Move, the first by a European nation, could be seen as vindication for Asian officials who have stressed the importance of the practice
- ‘Masks are alien to our culture. This will require a big adjustment,’ Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz says
Austrian officials announced on Monday that they were making the wearing of masks in supermarket mandatory in a bid to curb the coronavirus outbreak there, the first time a European government has taken such a step.
“As of the moment these masks are handed out in front of supermarkets [and] it will be compulsory to wear them in supermarkets,” Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said, adding that the aim in the medium-term was for people to wear them in public more generally as well.
Underlining the departure from European practices, Kurz said: “I am fully aware that masks are alien to our culture. This will require a big adjustment.”
For health experts in East Asia who for months have encouraged the public to wear face masks amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Austria’s announcement could be seen as belated vindication in what has become something of an East/West divide in the debate over whether the measure helps reduce the spread of coronavirus.
While infection rates for places like Hong Kong and Japan– where masks are being worn, despite the lack of more drastic measures like lockdowns – remain low, their European counterparts are considering whether face masks should be made mandatory to help flatten the curve.