Victorian Minister for Health Martin Foley spoke to the ABC this morning about the relaxation of masks in certain settings. Here are some select quotes:
“The public health advice is that with declining rates of hospitalisation and the continued steady increase in third dose vaccinations, that coming together has allowed this advice from the Chief Health Officer to come to me and we’ve dropped the recommendation… for work and study from home.”
Masks are likely to remain a fixture of schooling in term oneCredit:AP
Masks however remain required in primary schools.
“This is related to the level of vaccination in younger kids five to 11. Victoria is actually doing pretty well, I think only behind the ACT in terms of those levels. And yes, we do need to do more which is why we’re working with pharmacies, GPs, pop ups in those areas. The critical thing is that if we want to make sure that we can take that next step is to get those kids five to 11 fully vaccinated as quickly as we can.”
On why vaccination rates remain lower than the government would like in children aged five to 11:
“There’s a perception incorrectly that the worst is behind us and that we don’t need to worry about vaccinations in some quarters. Some it’s simply a matter of ease of making the arrangements in place. We tend to see higher rates in those areas that see higher rates of vaccinations among adults and lower rates in kids. We see lower rates amongst adults, so we need to make it as easy as possible. Get the education and support programs in place and target area by area community by community. school by school to get those rates up. And that’s what we’re doing. And we’ll have more to say about those programs because we need to get those kids and those family members of those kids up to the same high level as the rest of the kids.”
On the risk to children:
“Well, young children present differently with COVID and the Omicron variant. They right from the start haven’t got as sick as older people. So in that respect, the public health concerns aren’t as high. But having said that young children live in families. They live in close proximity with adults and indeed with grandparents and older members of the community. So there’s a whole population, whole of community effort, and we need to drive those rates up, particularly as we head towards winter, where we will see now that international borders are reopened. The Chief Medical Officer for the Commonwealth is predicting a return of a significant flu season for the first time in a number of years, and the prospects of either resurgence of Omicron or potentially new variants. And we need to take the measures whilst we have this relative window of opportunity to drive all of those rates up particularly with kids.”
