In a first for the country, face masks have been made compulsory for all Mumbai citizens wanting to move around in the city, in any public places for whatever reasons, according to a BMC notification here on Wednesday.

In a decree, BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi said the measure was necessitated as studies have revealed that wearing face masks can substantially reduce the spread of coronavirus from and to persons coming in contact with each other, besides other mandatory social distancing measures already implemented.

He has ordered that any persons moving around in public places like streets, hospitals, offices, markets, etc, for whatever reasons must wear a face mask.

This would also be applicable to all people moving around in their official or personal vehicles at any site, office or workplace, besides attending any gatherings or meetings at workplaces.

The masks can be the regular 3-layer masks or cloth masks, either available with pharmacies or home-made which can be washed and reused after disinfecting them, Pardeshi said. The civic chief's strict orders -- with punitive clauses -- came as Mumbai continued to soar highest in the country in terms of maximum Covid-19 deaths (40) and positive cases (686) till today.