Coronavirus: Think of masks as part of our armour, Melbourne told

Victorian contact tracing chief Jeroen Weimar says mandatory rules on wearing face coverings played a crucial role in preventing a third wave of coronavirus.

Victorian contact tracing chief Jeroen Weimar. Picture: Daniel Pockett

Victorians are set to wear masks into summer, with the state’s contact tracing chief Jeroen Weimar saying mandatory rules on wearing face coverings played a crucial role in preventing a third wave of coronavirus.

On Monday, Victoria recorded its 10th consecutive day of no new cases and deaths, with the state’s rolling 14-day average falling to just 0.4.

One case was detected last night but was determined upon review to be a false positive, with public health experts chalking up the test result to “viral shedding”.

Mr Weimar said wearing masks outdoors would continue for the foreseeable future, pointing out that Melbourne’s stage-four restrictions had only lifted a couple of weeks ago,
with further easing due to take place before the end of the month.

“It’s a low-cost, easy thing to do that makes a material difference in reducing the risk of transmission,” he said.

“That continues to be our position and we think it’s a really important part of our armoury to prevent the resurgence of the coronavirus, and until that changes will continue to encourage people to wear masks when they’re outdoors.

“We have to look at the future of this program.

“When we start to look at people coming back into the state from overseas it will all change the risk profile of what we are dealing with.’’

There are now only four active cases of COVID-19, with two being treated in hospital.

Mr Weimar said that a person who tested positive on Sunday night had already completed a 14-day quarantine period in Western Australia: the Chief Health Officer and an expert review panel determined their result to be false.

“We did have a positive result last night (but) upon further investigation … that was determined to be an old case, he was previously quarantined outside of the state,” he said.

“We have analysed that as a case of a viral shedding and therefore it will not be included in our numbers.”

Mr Weimar said about a quarter of the tests were for those younger than 19, with the return to physical classrooms seeing an increase in symptoms of the common cold and flu.