Health Minister supports use of face mask exemption cards in Wales despite no requirement for proof of eligibility

The Welsh Health Minister has supported the use of face mask exemption cards, despite there being no requirement for people to provide proof of their eligibility.

Welsh Government legislation states that face coverings must be worn in all indoor public places.

There are a number of reasonable excuses for individuals not to wear them, including due to a physical or mental illness, with children aged under 11 also exempt from the rules.

Exemption cards are freely available to buy online and the government website provides a downloadable template which you can print off at home.

However, while police and local authorities have powers to enforce the law, managers of shops and other locations are not expected to take action.

The government website also states that no-one should be required to show a letter from a medical professional about their reason for not wearing a face covering.

The issue was addressed at yesterday’s daily press conference, where Health Minister Vaughan Gething described trusting members of the public to take responsibility as “the right approach”.

He said: “If we wanted to have a regulated approach to a card that said you didn’t need to wear a face covering, then I think you’d see extra demand going into our health care system at a time when our healthcare system is working incredibly hard with all the normal pressures of healthcare treatment that come with the winter, and the extraordinary pressures of the pandemic.

“I don’t think that would be a good use of people’s time.

“There are many parts of this pandemic that rely on people doing the right thing.

“Making sure that people responsibly use the ability not to wear a face covering because they honestly have a condition that means they don’t need to is one of those, together with all the other things we’ve asked people to do.

“The great majority of us have done that and that’s why I’m tremendously grateful to the people of Wales for doing so because we wouldn’t see the sustained reduction in case rates we have today.

“Now we’re down to less than 100 per 100,000 in terms of our case rates, more than half of our local authorities have case rates of less than 100 as well, with the positivity rate being less than 10%.”