People in France will have to wear face masks in enclosed or shared workplaces starting September 1, the Labor Ministry said on Tuesday, in the wake of the recent increase in COVID-19 cases
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2020) People in France will have to wear face masks in enclosed or shared workplaces starting September 1, the Labor Ministry said on Tuesday, in the wake of the recent increase in COVID-19 cases.
The epidemic has been rebounding in France in recent weeks, with more new clusters and the rise of daily infections. In order to prevent the escalation of the health crisis, the French government mandated the municipal authorities to implement restrictive measures in line with the local health situation. The requirement to use masks while outdoors has been in effect in many departments and major cities of France.
"To systematize the wearing of the masks in enclosed and shared spaces within companies and associations (meeting rooms, open-space, corridors, changing rooms, shared offices etc.)," the ministry said in a statement.
The measure will not apply to individual offices as long as there is just one employee there. Remote work will remain the preferred mode to reduce the use of public transport and the possibility of becoming infected.
France was under a nationwide lockdown from mid-March until May 11, which decelerated the virus' circulation. Nevertheless, since the end of July, the daily count of new infections has fluctuated over 1,000 cases, compared to previous daily averages below 1,000 new infections, causing the authorities to reimpose some of the previous sanitary measures.
To date, France has confirmed 256,534 COVID-19 cases and 30,434 related fatalities.
