Hancock: No need to wear mask in offices

‘Constantly looking at scientific advice’

MASKS will not become mandatory in offices because so few people are catching coronavirus at work, the Health Secretary said yesterday.

In a boost for efforts to get more employees back at their desks, Matt Hancock revealed there has been only a ‘ relatively low’ number of workplace infections.

Instead, new cases are predominantly coming from social gatherings held inside homes, he said.

Mr Hancock revealed the Government had ruled out copying France, which is making face coverings compulsory in almost all workplaces as it tackles a resurgence in cases.

From the start of next month, masks will have to be worn in all shared spaces in French offices and factories when there is more than one employee present.

But appearing on BBC Breakfast yesterday, Mr Hancock said similar measures would not be introduced on this side of the Channel.

‘We constantly look at the scientific advice and the answer here is that we are not currently considering doing that,’ he said.

‘The reason is that the evidence from NHS Test and Trace for where people catch the disease is that very largely they catch it from one household meeting another household, usually in one of their homes. And so it’s that household transmission that is the core group of passing on this virus in this country.

‘The amount of people who’ve caught it in workplaces is relatively low, we think, from the evidence that we’ve got.’

The Government scrapped its official advice to work from home at the beginning of this month, but efforts to get more workers in offices appear to have stalled, leaving city centres looking like ghost towns.

The scenes have fuelled concerns that many shops and restaurants that rely on office workers may not be able to survive.

Many businesses are not planning for workers to return to offices until at least towards the end of the year, while the likes of Facebook UK and RBS said staff will not go back until 2021.

Yesterday investment firm M&G told its workers they will be asked to stay out of the office for the rest of the year.