Trump not to order Americans to wear masks despite pleas from Fauci

US President Donald Trump says he will not order Americans to wear face masks amid an ongoing surge in the coronavirus cases across the United States.

This comes as the country’s top public health official Dr Anthony Fauci has stressed the need for people to use mask coverings to prevent the spread of the virus.

In a segment to be broadcast on Sunday, the president told Fox News, “No, I want people to have a certain freedom, and I don’t believe in that.”

However, three top officials with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday urged the public to wear masks.

“We are not defenseless against COVID-19,” CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus – particularly when used universally within a community setting.”

Also, Dr Fauci, the nation's leading infectious diseases expert, urged local leaders to enforce the wearing of face coverings.

“I would urge the leaders — the local political and other leaders — in states and cities and towns to be as forceful as possible in getting your citizenry to wear masks,” he said.

“Practically, when you're living your life and trying to open up a country, you are going to come into contact with people, and for that reason we know that masks are really important and we should be using them, everyone.”

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Republicans, who regard calls for people to wear masks as an affront to their personal liberty, have made the issue heavily politicized in the country.

With a surge in number of cases - more than 3,833,200 have been infected and over 142,800 killed across the country - such lines of argument are prompting states to craft drastically different rules on face coverings.

States first began to make wearing masks mandatory in April. However, three months later, many states are still yet to do so, and even some of them are blocking localities from setting their own rules.

In Georgia, Republican governor Brian Kemp issued an executive order blocking localities from creating their own law on masks. Kemp on Thursday even sued Atlanta's mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, asserting that her call to wear a mask violated his executive order.

However, as the virus cases are soaring, a number of states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, some of them with Republican governors, have issued orders demanding that the public wear masks.

Meanwhile, Trump, whose administration has also indicated that it will not federally enforce such measures, had previously said, "I don't think I'm going to be doing it. Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens - I just don't see it."

However, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday said, “We leave it to localities to make the decisions with regard to face coverings, and the CDC guidelines remain the same today: recommended, but not required.”

In first, Trump dons masks in visit to military medical facility

US President Donald Trump, who has avoided wearing a mask in public even as the coronavirus pandemic spread, donned one on Saturday (July 11) at a military medical facility outside Washington where he was set to meet with wounded soldiers and front-line health care workers.

Last week on Saturday, the Republican president wore a face mask during his visit to Walter Reed hospital, marking the first time he has done so in front of cameras.

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