Victorian health chief made official work-from-home, indoor masks request

As Victoria’s CHO calls for kids to wear masks in schools, new figures reveal the truth behind the number of children being hospitalised with Covid.

Victoria’s acting chief health officer had officially requested that the majority of students wear masks at school, and for people to work from home during the winter wave.

In formal advice to Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, tabled in parliament, Professor Ben Cowie called for masks to be worn by all students from grade 3 to year 12, as well as for all school staff, including those at early childhood services.

However, data obtained by the Herald Sun shows that school-aged children – who have been asked to wear a mask in schools if they are aged eight years or older — make up less than two per cent of current Covid hospitalisations in Victoria.

While cases among children have risen, hospitalisation data shows they are less likely to be hospitalised compared to older populations.

Two children aged between one and nine-years-old, and 10 patients aged between 10 and 19-years-old, are now in Victorian hospitals with Covid. None are in intensive care.

More than 100 people in their 60s are in hospital with Covid, while people aged between 80 and 89 represent the largest cohort, with 275 Covid patients — more than 25 times the number of patients in the 10 to 19 age bracket.

Of the 21 patients in intensive care, 10 are aged in their 70s.

Babies are also over-represented in Victoria’s hospitals, with one child under a year old on a ventilator in intensive care.

Twelve infants – equal to the number of patients in the one to nine and 10 to nineteen age bracket combined – are currently being treated in hospital for Covid.

Health authorities have officially requested workers resume remote work where possible. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Premier Daniel Andrews on Wednesday evening said he didn’t anticipate that Covid restrictions would likely change anytime soon.

Despite mass confusions in recent days, the Premier on Wednesday evening reiterated that Victorians weren’t subject to mask mandates — other than in a variety of settings, such as healthcare and on public transport.

“There’s no mandate. It’s not compulsory. There’s no sanction if you didn’t (wear a mask), it’s strongly recommended. Nothing more, nothing less. That’s the fact of it,” he said.

As to whether that could be updated to include more indoor settings, Mr Andrews said: “If you’re asking me if it’s my view that these rules are going to change, no they’ve only just been made.”

“I think it’s fair to say ... you’re not going to see mask mandates anywhere in the country,” he added.

“But you will see consistent advice from the national government and state and territory governments that it’s highly recommended that people wear masks inside, people act on their symptoms, get tested and isolate.

“We’d all like to change the iso period down to less than seven days but right now is not the time to do it.

“I think there’s unity around all of that, and that’s obviously a good thing.”

Daniel Andrews on Wednesday reiterated that Victorians weren’t subject to mask mandates. Picture: David Crosling

Meanwhile, Professor Cowie also urged that face coverings be worn by all retail and hospitality workers, and staff in public-facing areas of airports.

“Face coverings remain a low-impost intervention that have been demonstrated to reduce the risks of Covid-19 transmission when applied with high uptake and coverage,” he said.

“I acknowledge that face mask requirements are not universally supported in the community, and it is open to the minister to consider other means to achieve higher levels of mask use.”

Professor Cowie also “strongly recommended” that people work from home, where practical, during July and August.

Acting chief health officer Ben Cowie acknowledged mask mandates were ‘not universally supported in the community’. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“While I acknowledge that working from home is not practicable for many essential workers, particularly from an equity perspective, I urge workplaces and higher education providers to use their discretion to facilitate working and studying from home if practicable,” he added.

Professor Cowie urged the state government to “take efforts to promote uptake” of the fourth dose vaccine for all Victorians aged over 30, following fresh ATAGI advice.

The meeting, between Professor Cowie, Ms Thomas and Department of Health acting secretary Katherine Whetton, and acting deputy secretary Ryan Heath, also agreed to remove the elective surgery cap on private hospitals.

Currently, private hospitals are not permitted to exceed 100 per cent of the usual volume of allocated list time on elective surgery procedures.

But Mr Heath said that volume cap could be removed for private hospitals.

“This is essentially an administrative change which will allow more flexibility in the system,” he said.

“We are not recommending any restrictions to surgery noting there are other options for ensuring capacity in the system.

“There are consistent challenges in elective surgery across other jurisdictions.”

Professor Cowie said he supported that advice.

Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese encouraged Australians to get their booster doses, access antivirals if they were eligible, wear masks where appropriate and stay home when they were sick.

The Prime Minister backed chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly’s latest Covid advice, including for businesses to consider whether some staff could work from home.

“For some people, it’s just not possible to work from home, but for many businesses it works for both the business and the employee,” Mr Albanese said.

He acknowledged more people working from home would hurt some businesses and said it was important to be “getting the balance right”.

It comes as Victoria announced 12,984 new Covid cases on Wednesday, along with 28 deaths.

Currently, 906 Victorians are in hospital with Covid, including 45 undergoing intensive care, nine of whom are on a ventilator.

Mask push targeting wrong age group

Leading health experts say children are being unfairly singled out to wear masks when they are not the drivers of Covid transmission.

Epidemiologists said it did not make sense for children to get special attention when the state’s wider workforce was not being targeted by such measures.

Deakin University’s chair of epidemiology Catherine Bennett said the available data showed kids were not of most concern when it came to the spread of Omicron.

Professor Bennett said younger workers, those who fall within the 20-39 age group category, continued to be the largest transmitters of the virus.

“It’s unclear why the group, that isn’t at the heart of the spread, is being targeted,” she told the Herald Sun.

“Epidemiologically, you have the most impact if you reduce transmission when you target the places where most cases are.

“Everyone is spreading it, but you should be targeting the hot spots of infection, and the data suggests that is our young workforce through their jobs and social life.

“If there’s another reason why we’re targeting schools, then share it. We choose to ignore the age distribution (of available data), and instead ask kids to wear masks in schools.

Professor Bennett said the focus on schoolchildren was not evidence based.

“We should be working off evidence now – it’s not time to revert back and tell people what to do, if in fact, we can’t show why that’s a good thing,” she said.

Professor Bennett added the costs of wearing masks in the classroom was still not fully established.

“Putting something in place that might, at the very least, slow down some of the (child’s) recovery, is not something you do lightly.

“We have an obligation to understand the costs of that request. We have an obligation to evaluate any intervention and we haven’t done that in the past … and we absolutely need to do that now.

“That’s a fundamental public health obligation.”

kids masks

Masks in schools were one of the last restrictions to be lifted earlier this year.

Paediatric infectious diseases physician Robert Booy said urging children to wear masks was “looking at the problem from a community point of view rather than a child’s view”.

While Professor Booy said it was no question that transmission would be reduced by children wearing masks, it didn’t make sense for only that cohort to be targeted.

“Most children will not get Covid severely, so if we’re going to require children to wear masks, when it’s not for their direct benefit, but for the benefit of their teachers, parents, grandparents and wider community, than we should also be asking people in the workplace to wear masks,” he said.

“Children themselves are not the engine of the epidemic. We could be putting the cart before the horse if we’re not making adults in the workplace wear masks as well as schools.

“We need a multi-pronged approach and if children are going to bear the burden, it’s right to expect adults to do the same.”

Infectious diseases physician Peter Collignon said there is not enough data to support the use of masks in schools.

Professor Robert Booy says ‘children are not the engine of the epidemic’.

“While it may have some benefit, overall, children themselves are at much lower risk than adults,” he said.

“Whatever effect there may be (of wearing a mask) it’s likely to be less than the costs.

“There’s much more of an issue in the 20-40 year olds. It’s the proportionality here. How much benefit do you get from making kids wear them?”

Last week, the nation’s former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth said it was disproportionate to expect kids in schools to take on extra measures.

“It’s hard to see how an ­intervention in a school is going to save an 80-year-old in an aged-care facility, particularly when there is no strong evidence that such a measure would change the epidemic curve,” Dr Coatsworth said.

“By contrast, ensuring fourth doses and early access to diagnosis and antivirals for Victorians over 65 is guaranteed to save lives.”

Former World Health Organisation epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said mandating masks in schools is proportionate, but it should be extended even further than the classroom.

“In terms of infection risk, schools are high. However, my top priority would be to mandate face masks in retail settings,” he said.