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But there's still a very long way to go until we're all getting one. That's why the US Surgeon General got on Fox News and begged Americans to wear face masks in public.

"I'm pleading with your viewers. I'm begging you," Jerome Adams said during the appearance before the conservative audience on "Fox & Friends."

"Please understand that we are not trying to take away your freedoms when we say, 'Wear a face covering.'"

So why no face mask requirement? "If you are going to have a federal mandate you have to have a federal enforcement mechanism and right now as scientist and an educator, I would rather help people understand why they should cooperate with wearing a mask and how they benefit from it, versus just simply saying we are going to force you to do it, particularly by sending in federal troops or using federal mechanisms," Adams said.

The pivot. President Donald Trump later in the day tweeted a photograph of himself wearing a mask, calling it "patriotic."

Here's the entire history of mask recommendations.

Here's a list of all the states now requiring masks in public.

50% reduction: "People need to know that wearing masks can reduce transmission of the virus by as much as 50%, and those who refuse are putting their lives, their families, their friends, and their communities at risk," Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, told CNN's Holly Yan.

Horrible, sick irony. Trump and other leaders did not lead the way in the US on encouraging face masks even after it was clear they helped stop the spread of Covid in part because they wanted to focus on reopening the country.

Now, as the Washington Post points out, countries that did focus on masks are in a stronger position to reopen, albeit still with masks, and the US is finding itself on more travel restriction lists and more parts of the country may have to return to more stringent restrictions on daily life.

Admitting there's a problem

There is clearly a new line from the White House and federal officials.

Trump used to deny there was a problem. Now he's admitting to a "big flare-up in Florida, Texas, and a couple of other places."

The assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Adm. Brett Giroir, said on CNN Monday, "There is no question we're having a surge right now."

That's been clear for weeks in the continued high number of positive tests.

It's clear in the growing number of hospitalizations in many states, like Mississippi, where the governor said Sunday on CNN that the number of Covid-19 patients needing hospital care has about doubled in two weeks.

The growth is actually across most of the country, according to CNN's report. As of Monday morning, 31 states have seen more new cases this past week compared to new cases from the previou

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Newspaper front pages from around the world, Thursday 29 April 2021

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