Trump refuses to make masks mandatory

Saturday, 18 July 2020 10:44

By Nadia Swan

US President Donald Trump has refused to tell Americans to wear masks to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Earlier, Dr Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious disease expert, urged local and state authorities to encourage people to wear masks.

The wearing of face coverings has become a political issue in the US.

A number of US states, mainly in the South, are experiencing a surge in confirmed cases of coronavirus.

Meanwhile children in many US states have been told they won't be going back to school for the new academic year.

More from International News

US military targets IS in Syria strikes

The US military said on Saturday it carried out multiple strikes in Syria targeting ISIS as part of an operation that Washington launched in December after an attack on American personnel.
Israeli fire kills three people in Gaza, tension rises

Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians in two separate incidents across Gaza, local health authorities said, as tension rises over continued violence.
Tens of thousands protest in Minneapolis over fatal ICE shooting

Tens of thousands of people marched through Minneapolis on Saturday to decry the fatal shooting of a woman by a US immigration agent, part of more than 1,000 rallies planned nationwide over the weekend against the federal government's deportation drive.
One dead in Australian bush fires

At least one person has died in Australia's southeast where bushfires raging for days have razed buildings, cut power to thousands of homes and burned swathes of bushland, police said on Sunday.