The French government has ordered riot police to be deployed in one of the countries’ largest cities to enforce mask rules in their effort to stem the spread of the CCP virus.
The announcement came as Paris and Marseille last week widened the areas where face coverings are required to all farmers’ markets and more French neighborhoods.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal announced on Monday that an extra 130 police officers will be sent to the Marseille region, a coastal city in south-eastern France.
“We need a culture of masks, a culture of protective measures. We failed to deliver this clear message in the first wave,” Dr. Giles Pialoux, the head of infectious diseases at Tenon Hospital in Paris, told France Inter radio on Monday. “We need strong and coherent messages. I think the strategy of fear does not work.”
The French government made face masks mandatory in all enclosed public spaces and shops on July 22. The rules in Paris were expanded further on Aug. 15, among some other towns around France that are starting to require the wearing of masks in outdoor spaces as well.
As of Monday, confirmed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus infections in France rose to nearly 253,000 according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering. More than 30,000 people are reported to have died, one of the highest death tolls in the world.
Last Sunday, 3,015 more cases were added to the list in one of the highest daily spikes since the country lifted a strict two-month lockdown in May.
France has seen several incidents of violence involving people refusing to wear masks, including a bus driver who was beaten into a coma and later died after several passengers brutally assaulted him over a mask dispute.
In several major European cities, including Berlin, Brussels, and Madrid, relatively large “anti-mask protests” were organized with some participants saying officials are violating people’s rights and freedoms with their regulations.
“Our demand is to return to democracy,” one Berlin protester, who declined to give his name said. “The mask that enslaves us must go.”
Health experts say that the more people wear face coverings, the better, and that there is plenty of evidence that wearing masks helps to prevent the spread of the CCP virus. Though, a recent study has detailed that masks with exhalation vents or valves are not ideal, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“The purpose of masks is to keep respiratory droplets from reaching others to aid with source control. Masks with one-way valves or vents allow exhaled air to be expelled out through holes in the material. This can allow exhaled respiratory droplets to reach others and potentially spread the COVID-19 virus,” the guide reads.
“Therefore, CDC does not recommend using masks if they have an exhalation valve or vent,” it continued.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) commissioned a study early on in the spread of the CCP virus and concluded in the study that wearing a face mask decreases the wearer’s risk of getting infected by 65 percent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.