The proposed return to a cornerstone of our earlier pandemic response,combined with Professor Cowie’s recommendation for masks to be required in public indoor settings,such as schools,early learning,shops and bars,clubs and restaurants,would have represented a wholesale shift in our approach towards COVID.
The Cowie advice,provided to newly sworn health minister Mary-Anne Thomas 12 days ago,advocated for current mask mandates to be substantially broadened as part of an urgent strengthening of our public health response before the present wave of infections built to threatening levels.
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At the time the advice was provided in written form and verbally at a meeting between the minister,the acting CHO,acting health secretary Katherine Whetton and her acting deputy secretary Ryan Heath,there were 592 COVID cases in hospital. By the time the advice was published on Tuesday night,there were 897.
Thomas last week revealedshe received and rejected the recommendation for broader mask mandates,having judged they were not the most effective way of promoting greater use of masks.
“We need to empower Victorians to make their own decisions,” she said.