Victoria defies health advice for mask mandate as new Covid wave worsens nationwide

The Victorian government has ignored health advice calling for mask mandates in schools, early childhood and retail settings amid a warning that hospitalisations during the current wave of Covid and flu infections may exceed earlier peaks.

As Covid reinfection rates rise nationwide, Victoria on Tuesday joined Queensland in encouraging residents to don masks without requiring them to do so.

Victoria’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, confirmed she rejected advice for a mask mandate from the state’s acting chief health officer, Prof Ben Cowie.

“I made a decision based on the advice that I had received that further mandating masks was not the most effective way to get the message out about the importance of mask wearing,” Thomas told reporters.

It follows the president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Omar Khorshid, telling Guardian Australia that politicians should not block the advice from their chief health officers, including any advice to reinstate mask mandates.

“If [politicians] do block it, they need to be really clear and transparent about what advice they’ve received from the chief health officers and why they have gone against it,” he said. “They should make sure economic considerations, or political considerations, aren’t being placed higher than health issues. Because it’s not just people with Covid who suffer from this pandemic. It’s actually anybody needing hospital care at the moment.”

It comes as Australia recorded at least 58 Covid deaths and 41,336 new infections on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, residents in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia who test positive to Covid will have to retest for Covid-19 if they have any symptoms 28 days from their infection, and isolate for seven days if they test positive.

Previously, people could wait 12 weeks from their previous infection before needing to test and isolate again if symptoms developed. It follows Australian Health Protection Principal Committee advice delivered on Friday which said reinfection with Covid can occur from 28 days after a previous infection. South Australia is still considering what the rule changes might mean for isolation periods, but like other states will count anyone who tests positive 28 days after their initial infection as a new case.

The federal health minister, Mark Butler, said Covid cases were unlikely to peak nationally for at least four weeks during this third wave of infections.

“All of the modelling indicates that case numbers and hospitalisations have further to go over probably the next four to six weeks,” he told Melbourne’s Radio 3AW on Tuesday.

However, he said the federal program providing 10 free rapid antigen tests every three months for concession card holders would end in July.

Victorian employers are also being asked to consider work-from-home arrangements for their employees, although no mandate has been issued. An advertising blitz promoting Covid vaccine boosters will also start across the state.

Australia’s chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, warned some states could hold off on elective surgeries due to the surge in both Covid and influenza cases.

“All of that together has caused issues in our hospitals, and so [postponing elective surgeries] is a pretty standard thing to be done at this time of year during the winter season,” he told ABC TV on Tuesday.

“With this increase now in the new variant of Covid, that has exacerbated that problem.”

Victoria recorded 10,627 new cases and a further 16 deaths on Tuesday, with 737 people in hospital battling the virus. Covid hospitalisations in Victoria peaked at 1,229 in mid-January during the original Omicron wave.

In NSW, there were 10,806 Covid cases recorded in the past 24 hours, 20 deaths, and 2,049 people in hospital, 58 of which were in ICU.

Associate Prof Paul Griffin from the University of Queensland said people should not become complacent about the virus, warning those who had been recently infected could be reinfected in a matter of weeks.

“We are seeing reinfections being more common and in short intervals, and that is why we recommend the reinfection period be reduced to four weeks,” he told the Seven Network on Tuesday.

“If you get symptoms again, you need to assume it could be a new infection.”

The NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants “are more able to evade immunity gained from previous infection and vaccination”. “Reinfection is more likely and possible just weeks after a prior infection,” she said on Tuesday.

“We’re urging people who have recently had Covid-19, even if they left isolation in the past four weeks, not to be complacent. If you develop symptoms again, make sure to test and isolate.”

Griffin said the rise in new Covid infections alongside an increase in influenza cases was also concerning.

“This is translating into significant numbers in hospitals, with predictions … we may exceed the hospitalisations we saw in the first big wave in January,” he said.

“We cannot assume people are protected just because they’ve had Covid, you need to be up to date with your vaccines and linking with therapies if you are eligible.”

But Butler said intensive care unit admissions would be “markedly lower than they were in January”. He said those admissions would reach “about a third of the rate we saw in January”.

“That’s because in January although Omicron was driving the very big increase in case numbers because it’s so infectious, there were still cases of Delta running through the community,” he said. Delta is associated with more severe disease and a higher rate of hospitalisation.

From Monday, more people become became eligible for a fourth vaccine dose – or a second booster shot – as well as antiviral treatments to help offset symptoms.

Australians over 70 who test positive for the virus were from Monday offered access to antivirals on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Access was also expanded to people over 50 with two or more risk factors for severe disease, and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people over 30 with two or more risk factors.

Anyone 18 or over and immunocompromised may also be eligible.

Normally more than $1,000, the two antiviral treatments are now available for $6.80 for concession card holders and about $40 for everyone else.