Epidemiologists have urged Sydneysiders to wear masks and be more cautious than the public health orders in place to help prevent a coronavirus cluster from further seeding across the city.
ANU Associate Professor Senjaya Senanayake, an infectious diseases physician, said masks should be made mandatory in Sydney in indoor areas and on public transport. Last Monday, Transport Minister Andrew Constance said as few as one in eight people were wearing masks on public transport, with about one in 20 services exceeding social distancing requirements each day.However, patronage on Sydney's public transport network declined heavily over the weekend, down close to 60 per cent compared to the same time last year. A week earlier on 13 December, the network had been operating only 35 per cent lower to the previous year.
"People respond to their current perceived risk: so, when perceived risk is really high, like now, you see everyone wearing masks in the shops and on public transport but a couple of weeks ago, because people thought we'd cracked it, they stopped doing that," she said.