Western Sydney residents will be required to wear masks outdoors in a change to lockdown settings that epidemiologists say will on transmission.
From midnight,anyone living in the Blacktown,Campbelltown,Canterbury-Bankstown,Cumberland,Fairfield,Georges River,Liverpool or Parramatta local government areas will need to wear a mask at all times when outside their home.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the new rules were designed to ensure people were not caught out without a mask. The public health order in operation across Greater Sydney already required people to carry a mask when leaving home.
Professor Greg Dore,infectious diseases physician at St Vincent’s Hospital and epidemiologist at the Kirby Institute,said he did not support the measure given the lack of evidence of benefit and minor role outdoor transmission had played in Sydney’s outbreak.
ANU infectious diseases physician Professor Peter Collignon said the chance of catching COVID-19 from someone outside while social distancing was “extremely minimal”.
There have been only a handful of confirmed instances of transmission of the Delta variant outside in recent months,all while seated for an extended period.