Asia to Europe: A world of masks for coronavirus pandemic

When will Germany mandate masks? They have been systematically used to combat the spread of the coronavirus in Asia, and now Germany's Robert Koch Institute has recommended that they be worn here. Jena was the first city in the country to make them mandatory. The law will make it illegal to be in public spaces and supermarkets without a mask — or a shawl or scarf used as one — beginning April 6.

With a global shortage of face masks, people and institutions are increasingly making protective gear themselves. Tutorials are easily found on YouTube and Twitter. One of the people you can find online is Kerstin Bochow, the master wardrobe designer at the state theater of Cottbus, in the eastern state of Brandenburg. The masks her studio is making are for firefighters and the German Red Cross.

The artist Mansha Friedrich is also taking up crocheting needles to fight the coronavirus. Her handmade masks feature smiling faces, animal faces and other sunny motifs — and the cloth inlays are changeable. The Hanover-based artist says she doesn’t want to let the virus spoil her good spirits.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia are a step ahead. Both countries made face masks mandatory in all public spaces in mid-March. Slovak President Zuzana Caputova and Prime Minister Igor Matovic set a good example here. Austria has since followed suit and made it mandatory to wear a mask while shopping.

Face masks to prevent the spread of viruses have been a way of life in China for years, and they were also ordered early on in the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. This couple in Shenyang appears determined to keep the flame of romance alive despite the coronavirus — dancing passionately in the spring sunshine and ignoring the world around them.

Israel is another country with strict rules. Police and the military are enforcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's curfews. Orthodox Jews are not exempted from the rules. Here, in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim, a masked police officer orders an ultra-Orthodox man to go home.

In the heavily populated Gaza Strip, artists are trying to motivate their neighbors to accessorize, by painting their masks — as here in the neighborhood of Shuja'iyya. Authorities in Gaza have issued curfews and banned public events: Even the March 30 Land Day, an annual mass protest at the border with Israel, was canceled.

French President Emmanuel Macron is seen here visiting a factory that produces protective clothing and face masks in Saint-Barthelemy-d'Anjou. Hundreds of French doctors have filed suit against his government for failing to provide them with sufficient safety equipment as they battle the pandemic. Many doctors have, nevertheless, decided to do without rather than leave patients untreated.