The COVID-19 rule an epidemiologist thinks it’d be ‘sensible’ to reintroduce

A respiratory physician and epidemiologist says the return of mask mandates in supermarkets would be a “sensible” measure coming into winter, but Victoria should largely focus on getting people vaccinated against COVID-19.

It comes as senior Victorian government officials hint that COVID-19 rules may soon be eased.

Head of the epidemiological modelling unit at Monash University, Associate Professor James Trauer, says boosting third and fourth vaccine doses should be the primary focus of COVID-19 policy going forward.

While he says “we have to have a bit less of a focus on transmission now”, there’s one transmission-focussed rule he thinks should return — mandatory mask-wearing in supermarkets.

“In supermarkets, where lots of people come together, we should be mandating masks … that’s probably quite sensible coming into winter given that masks, they don’t really hurt the economy,” Professor Trauer told Neil Mitchell.

“If we did have universal masks on public transport … that would be a useful intervention, but we need to somehow convince people that they actually need to do that.”

Press PLAY below to Professor Trauer’s view on the rules we should ditch + the ones we should reintroduce