The United Kingdom has been having a little more trouble controlling the spread of the coronavirus pandemic than other European nations. Though the spread isn’t nearly as worrisome as the United States, the government is concerned enough that they’ve created a mandate that face masks must be worn in public areas such as movie theaters, museums, art galleries, places of worship and more starting on August 8. But at the same time, the reopening of movie theaters in the UK is being delayed slightly.

The mandate comes as the country is slowly reopening these establishments. Though Cineworld started reopening movie theaters today, they had intended to do so without requiring masks. Now they’ll only be able to get away with that for one week since the mask mandate will be enforceable by law starting on August 8. Initially, Vue cinemas had announced that they would be reopening this weekend, but they’ve now pushed back to an August 7 reopening instead. But even so, there are some new releases debuting in the UK theaters that will be open, including the thriller Unhinged starring Russell Crowe.

Though cinemas are now allowed to carefully reopen in the United Kingdom, other establishments such as live theatres, casinos, bowling alleys, concert halls and other recreational establishments will not be allowed to reopen until August 15. This delay and the mask mandate comes after the country recorded the highest number of new COVID-19 cases since June on Thursday this week, with a spike of 846 new cases.

Let’s compare that number to the state of Florida, with a population a third the size of the UK, where there were nearly 10,000 new cases of COVID-19. And yet Governor Ron DeSantis, a scorching case of herpes that has somehow gained sentience, keeps pretending like everything is okay and refuses to shut things down as people die all over the state. Florida also just broke the single-day death record for the third day in a row yesterday.

The fact that the United Kingdom is willing to take these measures with COVID-19 numbers significantly lower than many areas of the United States shows just how stubborn and ignorant our government is being when it comes to squashing the spread of the virus. Not only is this mandate something the UK’s government is supporting, but there will apparently be “greater police presence” when enforcing it.

Meanwhile, here in some areas of the United States, including my home state, we’ve got local sheriffs refusing to enforce mask mandates set by the state government where a violation could land someone six months in jail. It’s an exciting time to be soon be dead alive.

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