As the state handles with the escalating number of Covid cases, guidance on mask mandates from the team under Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has been deferred.
Masks should be made required in early education and retail settings, according to Mr. Sutton’s team, which is temporarily led by Ben Cowie while Mr. Sutton is away.
Mary-Anne Thomas, the newly appointed health minister for Victoria, asserted that she would disregard the recommendation.
“The Chief Health Officer has offered his opinion, and I have accepted it,” Ms. Thomas stated.
“However, I have decided not to extend mandates for mask wearing.”
It comes as Ms. Thomas continues to oppose efforts to mandate face masks once more outside of airports, ride-sharing services, and public transportation.
Instead, the minister has emphasized that wearing masks is a personal decision.
Wearing a mask, staying current on vaccines, and making sure indoor spaces are well ventilated are all simple but effective measures Victorians and companies can take to reduce their personal risk of contracting Covid-19 this winter, the expert advised.
According to Dr. Roderick McRae, president of the Australian Medical Association in Victoria, the state’s commercial sector is being adhered to far too strictly, he told the Herald Sun.
Representatives from the corporate sector have warned that increased restrictions will destroy already fragile sectors.
There is a new minister, and our political leaders are there to analyze all the information.
The emphasis from business is receiving too much weight, Dr. McRae stated, so all I can do is keep repeating it until I’m blue in the face.
Additionally, Dr. McRae bet that the health minister will ban elective surgery since the problem with expanding caseloads is “extremely terrible.”
The Victorian government has been under pressure to reintroduce harsher Covid-19 regulations from conservative critics and ABC programs.
Premier Daniel Andrews, who oversaw the world’s longest lockdown in Melbourne last year, is now eschewing rigorous pandemic precautions as media figures like Steve Price demand for a reversion to them.
Price hypothesized that the Labor administration’s hesitation to reimpose a mask mandate was caused by the upcoming November 2022 election in Victoria.
On Monday night’s episode of The Project, Price remarked, “Let’s be honest about what’s occurring here.”
Since elections are approaching in Victoria and New South Wales, politicians are no longer paying attention to health advice.
“And they don’t want to tell people they have to wear masks or be locked down,” the statement continued.
On Tuesday, Victoria reported 10,627 new cases of COVID and 16 further fatalities, with hospitalization rates continuing to rise.
737 patients have the virus, which is an increase of 20 from Monday and over 200 over the past week.
In intensive care, 39 Covid contaminated patients—seven of whom are on a ventilator—are present.
Midway through the first Omicron wave in January, the number of Covid hospitalizations in Victoria reached a peak of 1,229.
According to Tuesday’s revisions, those who test positive for Covid would only be free from testing and isolating for four weeks as opposed to 12.
On Tuesday at 11.59 p.m., the modifications will take effect as recommended by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.
Although there hasn’t been a recommendation made, employers are also being urged to take into account working from home options for their staff.
Additionally, a statewide advertising campaign to promote Covid vaccination boosters will begin, and more grants are now accessible to small enterprises that want to purchase ventilators.
Two virulent new BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron have been sweeping the country, and health officials across the country have been warning of an impending increase in Covid cases.
Given the rapid spread of the Covid and seasonal viruses, ABC hosts have frequently questioned federal Health Minister Mark Butler about why he and his state counterparts aren’t restoring mask requirements.
Michael Rowland, the host of News Breakfast, charged Mr. Butler on Friday with “accepting” deaths by continuing to ban facial coverings.
According to Mr. Butler, the chief health officers’ recommendation is that wearing a mask indoors is something you can “make your own choice” about because Australia has “gone past the era of really broad mask mandates and lockdowns.”
Mr. Rowland, however, was unconvinced by that response, asserting that research had shown that mask laws had nearly a 100% success rate, despite the fact that case numbers had increased even when earlier laws had been in place during the Delta and Omicron epidemics.
During Sunday’s ABC’s Insiders show, David Speers, another ABC presenter, interrogated the health minister in a similar manner.
Speers questioned: “You claim that the pandemic has entered a new phase, but you just informed us that we are in a new wave that is really serious and that you are concerned about this.
Do we actually not need to take into account any of these more traditional measures, such as mask mandates, because the epidemic has entered a new stage?
Why don’t we keep an eye on that for the following six weeks?
Mr. Butler claimed that he had not been advised to make masks mandatory and claimed that face coverings were preferable in “targeted” locations like hospitals, airports, and nursing homes.