No need to wear face mask while driving alone – Health expert challenges police

A lecturer at the Global Health Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has said police are wrong to order people driving alone in their cars to wear a face mask.

Dr John Amuasi said on Wednesday, June 23, 2020, there is no medical evidence that there is a viable risk of contracting COVID-19 from outside a vehicle while driving alone.

His comments follow a recent Executive Instrument (E.I.) mandating the wearing of face masks in all public places as a way to stop the spread the coronavirus disease.

The Ghana Police have interpreted the E.I. 164 to mean that everyone, including persons driving alone in their cars, must wear a mask that covers their mouths and nose or risk arrest and prosecution.

However, Dr Amuasi told Joy FM on Wednesday that, that interpretation is not founded on science.

“There is no need to take it this far. I don’t think the E.I. should be interpreted this way at all,” he stressed.

Health authorities had previously begun introducing measures to gradually make the wearing of face masks in public mandatory.

In April, the wearing of face masks was made compulsory in public in the Greater Accra Region and the Cape Coast Metropolis.

President Nana Akufo-Addo reiterated the directive in his last address to the public on Sunday, June 21.