University of Melbourne Professor of Epidemiology Tony Blakely said efforts to drive down numbers may be stalling due to a failure to stamp out hospital and aged care outbreaks
Dr Duckett put that down to something that was poorly understood at the time: COVID-19 is largely spread indoors by super-spreaders.
“We phased down too quickly. There was a lot of pressure on the government to phase out the lockdown – that it was going to cost the economy,” he said. "Many hospitals have old buildings and poor engineering controls, creating a hazardous environment for health workers, who may be exposed day in, day out," she said.
Professor MacIntyre backed calls for healthcare workers to be granted access to respirator masks, which offer a higher level of protection than surgical masks and for fit testing to ensure they were effective."The most logical thing to do is throw everything at protecting these workers and stopping the ongoing transmission," she said.
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