SWAN Hill students are being encouraged to mask up as new COVID cases surge in the past fortnight.
Parents across Victoria received a letter from the Victorian Government earlier in the week urging students and teachers to wear masks at school.
Signed by the Victorian Department of Education and Training, Independent Schools Victoria and the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, the letter recommended face mask are worn in indoor settings.
Swan Hill College principal Andrew Sartori said he wasn’t surprised at the letter.
“Watching COVID numbers go up around the state, I figured the chief health officer have some action to take,” he said.
Mr Sartori said that while there hasn’t been much feedback from parents yet, he had noticed a few more students wearing masks as recommended.
“We will follow the directions we get and encourage parents and families to brings masks,” he said.
The letter asked all students aged eight and over and all staff to wear masks in class (except where removing a mask is necessary for clear communication) from now to the end of winter.
“We are asking for your support in explaining to your child or children the importance of this simple step that will help keep our school as safe as possible,” the letter said.
“We all appreciate how important it is for students to be back at school. This action will help make sure as many students and staff as possible are protected from COVID and other winter illness.”
Victorian shadow education minister David Hodgett told the ABC he is concerned parents would be left confused by the letter.
“Here today again we’re hearing, ‘You should wear a mask, oh but we’re not going to make you, but we’re strongly recommending, but we are not going to mandate it’,” Mr Hodgett said.
“I think it’s clearly enforcing a mandate by stealth and I don’t think parents, when they wake up this morning and hear media reports or read media reports, are going to be very happy with this at all.”
However, Victorian health minister Mary-Anne Thomas rejected Mr Hodgett’s claims.
“No child will be disadvantaged as a consequence of not wearing a mask, I want to be very clear about that,” Ms Thomas told the ABC.
“The advice is that masks are effective in a school setting and therefore it’s entirely appropriate that the government provide this advice that masks be worn.
“In our third COVID winter, Victorians know what to do – they don’t need to be mandated to do this.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a reintroduction of mask mandates wasn’t on the table at the most recent national cabinet meeting amid concerns about an upcoming COVID-19 wave.
Mr Albanese said the chief medical officer hadn’t advocated for a mandate.
“The clear decision of the AHPPC, the peak body where you get all the state and territory chief health officers together with the chief medical officer, Professor (Paul) Kelly, haven’t advocated that to me at all,” he told the ABC on Thursday.
“The other thing you need to bear in mind is the mental health aspects of restrictions on people’s behaviour.
“We need to get the balance right and I think that’s something the chief health officers have borne in mind.”
Rural Doctors Association of Australia president Dr Megan Belot said that with cases jumping nationally – but only a small proportion of Australians choosing to wear masks when out and about – it is critical to mandate mask-wearing urgently to slow the spread of the virus.
“Wearing a mask is such a simple and cost-effective thing to do, yet most Australians have been reluctant to do so without governments making it a requirement,” said Dr Belot, who works in Cohuna and Kerang.
