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Australian State Mandates Masks to Fight COVID-19 Outbreak

Phil Mercer

   SYDNEY - Face coverings will be compulsory in the locked down
   Australian city of Melbourne beginning Wednesday as the COVID-19 crisis
   intensifies. Residents can only leave their homes for work, study,
   exercise and other essential business. Australia has had 12,428
   confirmed coronavirus infections and 126 people have died.

   The face covering order is the first of its kind in Australia, which
   has recorded more than 500 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
   It is the single biggest daily increase since the pandemic began. Most
   have been detected in the southeastern state of Victoria.

   Outbreaks have been reported at more than 40 nursing homes, and several
   prisons have been put into lockdown.

   Bandanas, scarves and handkerchiefs are all acceptable as the people of
   Melbourne are ordered to cover their faces outdoors. Residents are
   being given official advice on how to make their own masks from clothes
   and shopping bags.

   "It is not an exact science because we are still learning about this
   every day," said associate professor Philip Russofrom Monash
   University. "We know that it is transmitted through close contact, so
   physical distancing is our first action in our prevention, and when
   physical distancing cannot be maintained and that is when masks can
   come into consideration."

   As the crisis continues, travel between Victoria state and other parts
   of Australia, is being heavily restricted and more stringent border
   controls put in place.

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