Commuters have been warned that Tube staff will begin handing out £200 fines as part of a crackdown on face mask rulebreakers in London.
Face coverings were made compulsory in shops and other settings such as banks, post offices, hairdressers, and public transport in response to the Omicron coronavirus variant.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that fining customers who fail to wear them will ‘greatly help with compliance’.
Eight new cases of the worrying new strain were identified in England on Tuesday, bringing the UK total to 22.
Mr Khan welcomed the return of the power to fine people for not wearing face masks.
Those caught flouting the restrictions will be fined £200 for a first offence, doubling on each subsequent breach up to a maximum of £6,400.
The capital was the first city in England to insist they be worn after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in July.
But with no legislation allowing them to impose the rule, TfL’s roughly 500 enforcement officers were left trying to ensure compliance without the support of the British Transport Police.
Mr Khan told Sky News: ‘The really important thing is this, we know this rule change, with the ability to have enforcement, the ability to issue fines does lead to behaviour change.
‘How do we know that? Because before July 19 roughly speaking 85% of those using public transport wore a face mask. We issued almost 2,000 fines before July 19.
‘Since then, far fewer people have been asked to leave because we have fewer people doing the enforcement, and zero fines issued.’
As the new rules came into force on Tuesday, Transport for London staff were seen approaching people without a mask on and urging them to cover their faces.
TfL also wrote on Twitter: ‘You must wear a face covering on all our services unless exempt.
‘Our officers will continue enforcing the requirement, including reintroduction of powers for TfL and police to issue £200 fines for first offence.’
Some train passengers hit out at the decision to re-enforce face masks, while others criticised those who refuse to cover their faces in enclosed spaces.
At Paddington Station, in central London, the vast majority of travellers arriving on trains from Wales, western and south-western England all wore face coverings when entering the station.
Others who walked up from the London Underground station also wore face masks. But a handful of people were not wearing them inside the station.
A 56-year-old man and a 71-year-old woman, who asked not to be named and were travelling from Paddington to West Drayton for a walk, said they were against wearing face masks.
The man, who said he had not been vaccinated, said: ‘I think it’s horrendous. There’s no benefit whatsoever. It’s virtue signalling and there’s no point wearing it.
‘It’s trying to condition people to be controlled so that in the future we’re all going to become a technocratic world. It’s about compliance and control to bring communism into this country – a form of communism, technocracy, which is a form of communism.’
He added: ‘They’re using this to force us all to be conditioned and controlled to ruin Christmas for everybody.’
Marc Zinnendor, who was travelling to Kingham in Oxfordshire, described face masks as ‘courtesy coverings’.
He said: ‘I find it annoying (seeing people wearing masks), because human beings are not programmed to socialise like that.
‘Half your face is gone. I can’t see now whether you’re smiling or whether you are angry.’
Financial services worker Michelle Carroll, 40, who was travelling to Westbury, in Wiltshire, said she felt annoyed when she saw people not wearing face masks.
She said: ‘It’s infuriating. Everyone has a choice and approach about how they deal with these things. I just wish that people would just understand their impact and not be so selfish.
‘I can’t change or persuade them otherwise. But I’ll carry on just doing what I want to do and try to keep as many people around me as close and safe as possible.’
A 62-year-old company director, who declined to give his name and was travelling to Bristol, said people should wear face masks ‘all the time’ on trains.
He said: ‘As soon as I get on the train, I put a mask on, and I wear it all the time. I’ve got no problem wearing a mask in an enclosed space. I think it’s very arrogant and inconsiderate to not wear a mask.’
Meanwhile, a private healthcare nurse said she was worried about Omicron and seeing people not wearing face masks made her feel uncomfortable.
Andrea Andrades, who got the train to Paddington from Hayes in west London, said: ‘I don’t know what the new variant can do to me or my family.
‘Everyone needs to be wearing face masks. I think they’ve forgotten about all the things we experienced months ago. No-one should forget about that or the people who passed away.’
The Prime Minister has insisted the ‘balanced and proportionate measures’ reintroduced this week will be reviewed in three weeks, just days before Christmas.
Another 159 coronavirus deaths and 39,716 new cases were reported yesterday – down from 42,484 infections and 165 deaths a week before.
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