Despite initially resisting the measure, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is to end forced mask-wearing on London’s ‘Tube’ subway today.
Forced mask-wearing on public transport in Britain’s capital of London — including the mandatory wearing of masks on the London Underground — is to end on Thursday.
Sadiq Khan initially made the announcement on Tuesday, despite having recently resisted the ending of mask-wearing measures.
According to a report by broadcaster Sky News, all forced mask-wearing on public transport services run by Transport for London would be lifted, including the mask mandate on London’s famous Underground subway service.
Masks would still be “strongly recommended” for both passengers and staff as a method for curbing the spread of the Chinese Coronavirus.
“Following the government dropping all legal Covid restrictions, and in light of falling infection levels in London, it is expected that wearing a face-covering will no longer be a condition of carriage on the TfL network,” Khan said on Tuesday, before the removal of the measure was completely confirmed on Wednesday.
“We know that face coverings remain a simple, effective measure that give Londoners confidence to travel,” Khan later noted. “I urge passengers to be considerate of their fellow Londoners and continue to wear a face covering where appropriate unless exempt.”
Khan’s support of the removal of mask mandates stands in stark contrast to a previous decision he made on the matter last month.
General forced mask-wearing in public places was lifted back in January by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with the face-coverings becoming optional across England.
However, despite this rule change, Sadiq Khan and TfL said that they would maintain the rules making masks compulsory on the Tube and on other services in the capital.
“Reminder: wearing a face covering is still mandatory on all TfL services unless you’re exempt,” Khan wrote in a post online, having the power to keep the measure going thanks to local by-laws delegated to him as mayor.
“I’ll wear mine when I’m out and about. Please continue to wear yours,” he continued.
The London mayor was not the only one to resist Johnson’s changes, with a significant number of schools in England going against the advice of authorities by maintaining forced mask wearing for students.
This was despite the UK’s Education Secretary insisting that “all schools” should be abandoning mandates to ensure that kids could “enjoy a normal experience”.
While Londoners are now officially free of forced mask-wearing, that was far from the only change in England on Thursday in regards to COVID rules.
All of England’s remaining restrictions against the Chinese Coronavirus have been completely scrapped, including the mandatory period of self-isolation should someone test positive for the disease.
Those with the Chinese Coronavirus in England will still be advised to self-isolate, but they will not be legally required to do so.
The end of the remaining measures comes as the Johnson government introduce their “Living with COVID” plan, which aims to roll back all of the country’s COVID supports and schemes, including free testing for the disease, as well as COVID illness supports.
“…because of the efforts we have made as a country over the past two years, we can now deal with it in a very different way, moving from government restrictions to personal responsibility, so we protect ourselves without losing our abilities and maintaining our contingent capabilities so we can respond rapidly to any new variant,” the Prime Minister said regarding the change.
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