7月10日中英文要闻：澳大利亚维州新增288例 州长建议居民戴口罩Melburnians urged to wear masks

澳大利亚维多利亚州过去24小时新增288例确诊，这是全澳各州与领地自新冠大流行以来出现的最高单日新增。维州州长建议疫情高发地区居民出门戴口罩。

ABC analyst Casey Briggs looks at Victoria's latest coronavirus figures.

维州州长建议疫情高发地区人们出门戴口罩。

 （注：文后附澳大利亚华人公共卫生健康专业人士联络会执委会成员7月3日写给维州政府首席卫生官的英文邮件的主要内容 澳洲新冠疫情恶化，华人公共卫生人士呼吁政府要求居民公共场所佩戴口罩Mandate face mask use in public）

(AAP: Bianca De Marchi)

维州新增288例确诊

维州州长丹尼尔·安德鲁斯宣布，维州过去24小时新增288例确诊，其中26例与已知病例相关，262例正在调查中。

这是全澳各州与领地自新冠大流行以来出现的最高单日新增。今年三月，新州曾在24小时内新增212例确诊。

安德鲁斯建议居住在疫情高发地区，即大墨尔本地区以及米切尔郡（Mitchell shire）的人们，出门时佩戴口罩。州政府正在安排生产200万个可重复使用口罩。

“这是我们对你的请求，并非强制性的，” 安德鲁斯说。

“我们只是请求你如果可以，在无法保持[社交]距离的情况下请戴口罩。”

安德鲁斯透露，维州昨天进行了37,588次检测。

首席卫生官布雷特·萨顿说，今天的数据“很糟糕”，他表示Roxburgh Park、Craigieburn 和Truganina 都是高发地区，任何有症状的人都应该接受检测。

EMBED: 各州及领地新冠确诊和死亡数据 - 持续更新

Melburnians urged to wear masks as Victoria records 288 new coronavirus cases

Victorians have been urged to wear masks when they leave their homes after the state recorded 288 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, the largest daily increase of the pandemic so far.

The Government is still working out how to distribute those masks. In the meantime, homemade masks or scarves would be appropriate, Mr Andrews said.

"You might not be able to keep your distance, then a homemade mask will be of some benefit to you, to your family, to your suburb, your community and indeed of us all."

The updated advice is based on studies that show wearing face masks can reduce transmission of coronavirus by 60 per cent, even when taking into account that not everyone will wear them correctly.

Mr Andrews said the request was being made out of an abundance of caution, and because it was relatively easy.

"Masks in those circumstances you can't maintain distance will be a feature of our response to the pandemic for the foreseeable future —many, many months."

'Can't guarantee that this ends in six weeks'

Mr Andrews said 37,588 tests were conducted yesterday, and the sharp rise in cases was partly attributable to such high testing numbers.

"That is the biggest single day of testing that has been done and by some considerable margin," he said.

Of the 288 new cases, 26 are connected to known outbreaks, and 262 are still under investigation.

"Those numbers will jump around a bit, there will be linkages back to other cases, but again the detective work has to be done first." Mr Andrew said.

The previous highest daily rise was in New South Wales, with 212 cases back in March.

"There will be great concern about those numbers, people will feel particularly concerned to see that number as high as it is," Mr Andrews said.

"We didn't take the step to return to staying at home … because the numbers were stable.

"We took that step because we knew it would need to get worse before it got better."

He would not rule out making changes to any given postcode, or extending the lockdown, if necessary.

"I have to be clear with people: we can't guarantee that this ends in six weeks," he said.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said today's numbers were "ugly" but they were an indication of what was happening in the state one week ago.

He said it was not necessary for children and teachers to wear masks at school, but they could choose to do so.

Victoria's coronavirus numbers expected to worsen

Victoria now has 1,172 active cases.

There are 47 people in hospital in Victoria, up from 40 yesterday.

That includes 12 people in intensive care units, up from 9 yesterday.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said today's numbers were "ugly" but they were an indication of what was happening in the state one week ago.

He said it was not necessary for children and teachers to wear masks at school, but they could choose to do so.

Victoria's coronavirus numbers expected to worsen

Victoria now has 1,172 active cases.

There are 47 people in hospital in Victoria, up from 40 yesterday.

That includes 12 people in intensive care units, up from 9 yesterday.

Professor Sutton predicted the number of hospitalisations and deaths would soon get much worse.

"We will see an increase in hospitalised and ICU cases, and in deaths, in the coming days because of the spike that we have seen in recent days," he said.

"It is because we're seeing people who are most vulnerable, the elderly, those with chronic illness, coming down with infection."

But when asked whether the pandemic was out of control in Victoria, he said no.

"We are working on controlling this. We know what works. We know it works through our first wave," he said.

"It absolutely has to have people doing the right thing across the board."

Victoria Police issued 60 fines for breaches of the Chief Health Officer's directives in the 24 hours to 2:00pm.

It included 16 fines for people who attended a birthday party in Dandenong, after police were tipped off to people buying large amounts of food at a KFC in the early hours of the morning.

Regional community sport to stay non-contact for adults

The Chief Health Officer has also changed the advice around sport in regional Victoria.

Although regional communities are not part of the lockdown, the decision was made to halt the resumption of full-contact training and matches for people aged 19 and over.

Full-contact training was scheduled to resume on July 13, with full-contact competition set to return on July 20.

But with a significant increase in cases in Melbourne, and some active cases in a number of regional towns, that has now been put on hold.

However, full training and competition can continue for players aged 18 and under.

Supermarket closes due to COVID-19 cases

LaManna Supermarket in Essendon Fields has sent out an email to customers warning four people linked to the story have contracted coronavirus.

LaManna management sent the email just after 4:00pm but kept the supermarket open until 6:00pm.

It is now closed until Wednesday.

"Any customer who shopped at the supermarket on July 5 and have since felt unwell or displayed any symptoms are urged to contact the health department," the email to customers says.

"We are also highly recommending that every employee gets tested during our closure period."

（以上内容来源：ABC News ）

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以下是澳大利亚华人公共卫生健康专业人士联络会执委会成员于7月3日写给维州政府首席卫生官的英文邮件的主要内容：

3 July 2020

Dr. Brett Sutton

Chief Medical Officer Victoria

Re: A letter calling for the government to mandate the wearing of face masks by the public in confined spaces and crowded places to stop the spread of coronavirus

Dear Dr. Sutton

While we commend the prompt and effective actions from the Victorian government during the recent surge of community-acquired new infections of COVID-19 in Melbourne, we call for governmental advocate wearing face masks by the public in confined or crowded public places as an essential measure to stop the spread of coronavirus.

A myriad of international research evidence finds that wearing face masks is one of the most effective measures of preventing spread of the coronavirus. It is particularly important to prevent people from getting infected from unknown sources such as asymptomatic cases or cases during incubation period. We understand that some people are concerned about complacency of those who wear face masks in maintaining the existing important measures such as hand hygiene and social distancing. However, there is a lack of evidence to support such an argument. As a matter of fact, people who wear face masks are more likely to be aware of the high risk of COVID-19; they will also follow other governmental guidelines. Wearing face masks can also remind others to keep physical distancing.

The World Health Organization (WHO), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and more than 75 countries have endorsed or mandated wearing face masks by the public in the battle against COVID-19 in confined and crowed environments such as public transport, shops and classrooms. As of early May 2020, 88% of the world's population lives in countries that recommend or mandate the use of masks in public.

A recent comparative study published in Health Affairs compared the COVID-19 growth rate before and after mask mandate in 15 states of the United States plus Washington DC from April to May 2020 shows that ‘mandating face mask use in public is associated with a decline in the daily COVID-19 growth rate by 0.9, 1.1, 1.4, 1.7, and 2.0 percentage-points in 1–5, 6–10, 11–15, 16–20, and 21+days after signing, respectively... as many as 230,000-450,000 COVID-19 cases possibly averted by May 2020 by these mandates.’

On a social cohesion level, governmental mandating of wearing face masks will also improve the understanding and acceptance from other communities of the protective measures taken by our Asian brothers and sisters to safeguard themselves and their fellow Australians.

Home-made cloth face masks are recommended and should be encouraged for the public as an alternative to surgical masks (cloth masks are good for the environment, easier to breath and less costly).

We believe that as our state is recording its biggest increases in community transmission of coronavirus, it is now the high time that this evidence-based additional public health measure be mandated swiftly and widely, particularly important when more economic activities are returning. We urge the government to mandate the use of masks by the public in confined and crowed environments in order to effectively stop the spread of coronavirus.

Yours sincerely,

Executive members of the Chinese Public Health Professionals Network Australia Inc.

Dr Lin Li
Dr Eileen Yang
Dr Anne Pang
Professor George Liu
Dr Hui Li  
Ms Alice Zeng