BRUSSELS/PARIS – France on Monday joined the ranks of European countries which have mandated the use of face masks in all indoor public places, in another sign that the face mask is playing big in Europe’s post-lockdown measures to limit COVID-19 transmission.

Before France, multiple governments – from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Romania to Slovenia, Albania, and Serbia – have already obliged their citizens to cover their mouth and nose in indoor public spaces.

A dozen other European countries such as Britain, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Malta have mandated the use of face masks on public transport.

MASK-WEARING IN PUBLIC SPACES IN FRANCE

On Monday, the French government’s order to make mask-wearing mandatory came into effect, amid worrying signs of acceleration of the virus circulation and a growing number of clusters.

According to the order, wearing a face mask is now compulsory for all people over the age of 10 in restaurants and hotels, shops, covered markets, museums, cinemas, concert halls, places of worship, airports and stations, libraries, vacation centers, administrations and banks.

Any person who refuses to comply will pay a fine of 135 euros (154.7 U.S. dollars).

“That is because we note that there are worrying signs of resumption of the epidemic in certain places of the national territory,” Health Minister Olivier Veran told France Info radio on Monday morning.

Since the lifting of lockdown on May 11, health authorities have detected between 400 and 500 active coronavirus clusters resulted mainly from family meetings during the summer holidays, the minister added.

On July 16, the region of Mayenne in northwestern France took the lead by ordering the public to start wearing face masks in all public spaces after an increase in the number of coronavirus infections in six communes.