US health agency imposes nose masks on travelers

US health agency has disclosed that nose masks will be imposed on travelers.

The agency reported that people across the United States would be required to wear masks on nearly all forms of public transportation, including planes, subways and buses.

This is coming as the country grapples with high COVID-19 infection rates and growing concerns over new variants of the novel coronavirus.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) issued an order late on Friday that all travellers “must wear masks that completely cover both the mouth and nose” on planes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-shares.

The order, which goes into effect at 11:59 pm ET on Monday (4:59 GMT Tuesday), applies to travel into, within and out of the country.

“Masks also must be worn at transportation hubs … and other locations where people board public transportation,” the agency said.

The order comes as US President Joe Biden seeks to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control in the US, which has reported almost 26 million cases of COVID-19 and at least 437,000 coronavirus-related deaths – the highest tallies of any country in the world.

Since taking office, Biden has signed an executive order requiring masks to be worn on federal property, requiring interstate travellers to wear masks and pledging to rejoin the World Health Organization (WHO), from which former President Donald Trump withdrew.

Biden also “challenged” people across the US to wear masks for his first 100 days in office, a departure from the approach of Trump, who largely eschewed the public health measure and opposed state-wide mask mandates.

In its public transportation order, the CDC says it “reserves the right to enforce through criminal penalties” for non-compliance with the mask rule, but did not specify what those penalties could be.

The agency also said it “does not intend to rely primarily” on those penalties, “but instead strongly encourages and anticipates widespread voluntary compliance”.

The requirement will be enforced by federal authorities, and “may be enforced by cooperating state and local authorities”.