Government updates school mask advice, watering down previous recommendation

The Andrews government has announced its latest guidelines on mask-wearing for Victorian students and teachers ahead of the new school term.

The move on masks brings Victorian students in line with other states. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Students and teachers will no longer be asked to wear masks in schools when Victorian classes resume for term four on Monday.

A state government spokesman said there is “no requirement for students to wear masks in schools”.

However, as with the rest of the community, masks are recommended in indoor settings or when it is difficult to distance.

The operations guide covering state schools has been updated to reflect this change, watering down previous advice that suggested children aged over eight and staff were “strongly recommended” by the Department of Health to wear masks inside in class or when they can’t physically distance outside.

The change in advice means students such as Grade 5 Olivia will not be asked to wear masks at school. Picture: Mark Stewart

Household contacts attending school who are over eight years of age are required to wear face masks indoors unless they have a valid exception, the guide states.

At the end of last term, teachers in many Victorian schools and some students were still wearing masks as a result of the strong recommendation.

The change brings Victorian students in line with other states who no longer have to wear masks.

It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday announced that people who contract Covid do not have to remain at home while infectious from October 14, unless they work in aged care or healthcare.

Following a meeting of national cabinet on Friday, Mr Albanese said scrapping Covid quarantine was proportionate and that now was the right time to make the change.

The Department of Health had previously ‘strongly recommended’ masks be worn by students inside the classroom or when they can’t physically distance outside.

Wage compensation will also end, except for workers in the aged care, Aboriginal healthcare, disability care and hospital sectors who will still be required to isolate.

“We have agreed today, based upon the advice, that we are moving beyond the emergency settings that were put in place,” he said.

“We are changing our position based upon changing advice and changing circumstances – and that has to occur.

“There’s not a role for government in running every bit of people’s lives forever.

“And that is my firm position.

“You know, this isn’t an ideological thing. This is a practical outcome that was agreed across the board.”

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said it was “time to move away from Covid exceptionalism”.

He said “emergency response phase is probably finished”. Dr Kelly said the decision to end mandatory isolation the country was now in a “very low transmission – community transmission phase of the pandemic here in Australia.”

In his written advice to the Prime Minister released after national cabinet, Dr Kelly warned it was highly likely that further waves of infection would continue to occur over the next two years at least.

This was due he said to a combination of factors including genetic variation, higher transmissibility, waning immunity, a lower adherence to public health messaging and environmental factors such as winter seasons and the removal of the remaining public health measures such as test, trace, isolate and quarantine.

He warned it was possible the world “may even see the emergence of a very different variant before the end of 2022.”

Jacqui Blackwell, a spokeswoman for the parents’ lobby group Shadow Pandemic Victoria, said the removal of masks in schools was long overdue.

“This recommendation for masking kids for months on end should never have been made. Many thousands of parents and children will never forget the lack of humanity, humility and consultation this government has shown during this pandemic,” she said.