LONDON (Reuters) - Britain does not recommend that healthy citizens wear face masks, a senior health official said on Friday, saying that they are not proven to affect the spread of the coronavirus.

“There is no evidence that general wearing of face masks by the public who are well affects the spread of the disease in our society,” Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said at a government news conference.

“What matters right now, of course, is social distancing.”