Dutch Government Won't Advise Public to Wear Masks

The Dutch government on Wednesday said it will not advise the public to wear masks to slow the spread of coronavirus, asserting that their effectiveness has not been proven.

The decision was announced by Minister for Medical Care Tamara van Ark after a review by the country's National Institute for Health (RIVM). The government will instead seek better adherence to social distancing rules after a surge in coronavirus cases in the country this week, Van Ark said at a press conference in The Hague.

"Because from a medical perspective there is no proven effectiveness of masks, the Cabinet has decided that there will be no national obligation for wearing non-medical masks" Van Ark said.

[...] RIVM chief Jaap van Dissel said that the organization was aware of studies that show masks help slow the spread of disease but it was not convinced they will help during the current coronavirus outbreak in the Netherlands.

He argued wearing masks incorrectly, together with worse adherence to social distancing rules, could increase the risk of transmitting the disease.

Dr Tegnell, the author of Sweden's controversial lockdown-lite strategy, this week welcomed a decline in new cases and deaths as he continued to champion the country's largely voluntary approach to social distancing.

"The curves go down, and the curves over the seriously ill begin to be very close to zero. As a whole, it is very positive," he told reporters.

"With numbers diminishing very quickly in Sweden, we see no point in wearing a face mask in Sweden, not even on public transport."

6 of the top 10 places we found with the most severe coronavirus hospitalization rates were in Texas:

Rio Grande Valley most likely has the worst rate of hospitalization in the U.S.

In Corpus Christi, at least 87 people have died from the virus in the past 3 weeks. pic.twitter.com/cTd55O86N1

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 23, 2020