On his Twitter account, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš urged U.S. President Donald Trump to follow the Czech example and introduce mandatory face masks for people in public space.
Babiš explained that wearing a face mask reduces the spread of the virus by 80 percent and that the Czech Republic has made face masks mandatory for all its citizens.
Mr. President @realDonaldTrump, try tackling virus the Czech way. Wearing a simple cloth mask, decreases the spread of the virus by 80 %! Czech Republic has made it OBLIGATORY for its citizens to wear a mask in the public. Pls retweet. God bless America!https://t.co/BATFV8l3ob
— Andrej Babiš (@AndrejBabis) March 29, 2020
The prime minister also said that he sent a video to most European presidents and prime ministers calling on people to wear face masks across Europe.
The video, using the slogan Masks4All, encourages everyone to share the message of the video in other countries where people do not use face masks.
The Czech government made it mandatory to wear face masks less than two weeks ago. However, some politicians and regional authorities had encouraged people to wear masks even before the government introduced the measure.
Due to the lack of face masks in shops in the Czech Republic, people started sewing them on their own.
According to health experts, using a face mask does not protect the person who wears it, but helps to stop the spread of the infection. That is why Czechs promote wearing face masks under the motto, “My face mask protects you, your face mask protects me.”
As the outbreak intensifies, health experts in the United States are now advising more people to wear masks, including healthy people.
Title image: President Donald Trump meets Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, March 7, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
