Victorians are being urged to treat their face masks like underwear amid a mad dash for supplies, according to AAP:
Swinburne University of Technology’s dean of health science, Bruce Thompson, said the same rules for undies should apply: have many and/or wash often.
“Assume your mask is like underwear. So don’t take it off in the middle of public. Don’t fiddle with it in the middle of public, don’t share them with somebody else,” he said.
“The concept of actually taking your underwear off in public and putting them on a kitchen bench is horrible – but that’s effectively what you are doing.”
He recommended having six to 12 masks ready for use on rotation, just as a person would with underwear.
“Masks are important and they are basically another tool in the armoury …,” he said. “The only way for the virus to actually spread is it has some form of human-to-human contact, either direct touching or via a droplet or something like that because someone is in very close proximity to them.”
The positive test rate in Victoria on any given day is about 1%, which equates to three times the national average, he said.
The run on masks comes as authorities confirmed face coverings or masks would become mandatory in public across metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell shire from midnight on Wednesday.
Although scarves and bandanas will be accepted the demand for surgical and reusable cloth masks rose overnight.
Google data showed search interest for “face mask” grew to a new high this week, peaking sharply around midday on Sunday. The interest value in Google shifted from zero early on Sunday morning to 100 by 2pm.
Volumes over the past seven days have been 63% above the previous weekly peak in mid-March. This online interest has translated into some shops running out of stock across Melbourne.
Retail store Chemist Warehouse said the demand for masks was unprecedented and “many stores ran out of the healthy stocks they had in place” on Sunday. But the pharmacy chain said there was no need to rush, as more stock was to arrive in stores by mid-Monday.
