Qatar to dole out $55,000 fines, jail time for not wearing face masks
Masks are mandatory for all Qataris who leave their homes, except when driving alone.
Beginning Sunday, wearing face masks in public will be mandatory across Qatar, with violators at risk of jail time and up to $55,000 in fines.
Masks will be mandatory “upon leaving the house for any reason” except when “alone while driving a vehicle,” the Qatar News Agency reported Thursday. The regulations will remain in place “until further notice.”
The punishment for not wearing a face mask is a fine of up to 200,000 riyals ($55,000) or three years in prison.
The small Gulf country of some 2.7 million has one of the world’s highest rates of infection, but a relatively low death toll. Qatar health officials have so far registered 29,425 cases of the coronavirus and 14 deaths.
