Jennifer Aniston says wearing masks 'shouldn’t be a debate' as pandemic worsens

US actress Jennifer Aniston has urged fans to wear face masks and encourage others to do the same as the Covid-19 pandemic accelerates worldwide.

The Friends actress made this appeal in a lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday morning, a day after the global Covid-19 death toll passed 500,000 and the number of confirmed infections topped 10 million.

The World Health Organisation has since warned "the worst is yet to come".

Aniston, next to a selfie wearing a mask, implored her 34 million followers to comply with the recommendation if they care about lives.

"I understand masks are inconvenient and uncomfortable. But don’t you feel it’s worse that businesses are shutting down, jobs are being lost,  health-care workers are hitting absolute exhaustion. And so many lives have been taken by this virus because we aren’t doing enough. ⠀⠀

"I really do believe in the basic goodness of people so I know we can all do this but still, there are many people in our country refusing to take the necessary steps to flatten the curve, and keep each other safe. People seem worried about their 'rights being taken away' by being asked to wear a mask."

The award-winning actress slammed the politicising of the issue "at the expense of people's lives", adding that "it really shouldn't be a debate". 

The US has been hit the hardest by Covid-19, with more than 126,000 people losing their lives to Covid-19 and more than 2.6-million infected so far. 

- Additional reporting by AFP