US President-elect Joe Biden has said he will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office to curtail the spread of coronavirus.
In an interview to CNN Biden said he believed there would be a “significant reduction” in Covid-19 cases if every American wore a face covering.
Mr Biden also said he would order masks to be worn in all government buildings.
“The first day I’m inaugurated to say I’m going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just 100 days to mask, not forever. One hundred days.”
“And I think we’ll see a significant reduction if we occur that, if that occurs with vaccinations and masking to drive down the numbers considerably.”
“I’m going to issue a standing order that in federal buildings you have to be masked.”
He added: “Transportation, interstate transportation, you must be masked, airplanes and buses, et cetera.”
The first 100 days of a new presidency is symbolically important in the US and is seen as a gauge of how a president will get things done.
Constitutional experts say a US president has no legal authority to order Americans to wear masks, but Mr Biden said during the interview he and his Vice-President Kamala Harris would set an example by donning face coverings.
The Trump administration until now has rejected calls from American health experts to mandate masks in transportation as “overly restrictive”.
The US has recorded 14.1 million cases and 276,000 deaths from Covid-19 – the highest of any country in the world.
Mr Biden is preparing to take office as pharmaceutical giants are poised to ship millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines to the American public.