South Australia's Premier denies his government is trying to reintroduce a mask mandate by stealth despite Chief Public Health Officer writing to organisations recommending enforced mask-wearing.
The University of South Australia has taken up the recommendation from Professor Nicola Spurrier even as the latest peak of COVID-19 cases appears to be over.
Masks are only mandated by law in South Australia in healthcare settings, in disability and aged care, in pharmacies and on public transport.
Premier Peter Malinauskas was asked if the influential professor's contact with organisations such as UniSA, which has 37,000 students, was a mask mandate by stealth.
"Not at all," he said.
"There is a massive difference between masks being mandated to be worn and encouraging people to wear masks [and] encouraging organisations to encourage masks to be worn."
"It's up to those organisations to make their own decisions, but we are not actively considering reintroducing a mask mandate," he added.
"We are providing that guidance and then other organisations will make their own determinations depending on their circumstances."
Professor Spurrier last week told a parliamentary committee she had not recommended a broader mask mandate be reintroduced.
Yesterday, University of South Australia vice-chancellor David Lloyd sent an email to all staff announcing the institution was reintroducing the requirement for mask-wearing in shared indoor spaces on campus.
He said Professor Spurrier had written to him about "an expected peak in numbers of infections by COVID-19 variants Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 in our community".
"Wherever teaching or research activities require in-person or face-to-face delivery, mask-wearing is required," Professor Lloyd said.
"Wherever teaching or research activities can be conducted online, they should be delivered online.
"Where practical, meetings should be conducted using Zoom or Teams."
Case peak appears to have passed
SA Health today reported 2,848 new COVID-19 cases had been detected in the state.
It is the fourth day that the number of new cases per day has been under 3,000.
Modelling released two weeks ago had predicted up to 7,000 cases a day by now.
Last Friday, Professor Spurrier said it was too early to tell if the peak of case numbers had been reached in the latest wave.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said today's Emergency Management Council subcommittee of state cabinet had been told it had passed two weeks ago — on July 19.
"All the signs are positive at this time that we are coming down from the peak," he said.
Three new deaths were reported today, of a woman in her 90s, a man in his 70s and a man in his 80s.
Moves to hand out masks on public transport
SA Health staff will be handing out masks to some public transport users after low levels of compliance with the rule.
"What we're doing is those compliance teams that will be out on the ground talking to South Australians about wearing masks," the Premier said today.
"They will have free masks on them and make them available to people in the event they forgot them."
Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn had earlier in the morning called on the government to make that happen.
"It's no secret, really, that passengers aren't wearing masks on public transport right now and we believe that providing them for free is common sense and will help more South Australians get on board with wearing them," Ms Hurn said.
Last week, Professor Spurrier told a parliamentary committee said it would be "quite appropriate" for SA Health to hand out masks to public transport users.
SA Health took over from SA Police in enforcing mask-wearing on public transport when the state of emergency declaration ended in May.
SA Police handed out two fines in June for people breaching COVID-19 directions, compared with between 100 and 230 each month over the previous 10 months.
SA Health said it has not handed out any fines since it became responsible for compliance and takes an "educational approach" towards mask wearing.
