Australia Under 'Increasing Pressure' To Bring Back Mask Mandates

'Increasing pressure' to bring back hated mask mandates across Australia amid looming third Covid wave and raging flu season - with hundreds of thousands of workers predicted to stay at home over the coming weeks

 TOM HEATON FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Masks could become mandatory across Australia again as a looming Covid and flu crisis threatens to bring the nation to a standstill.

Nearly 250,000 Aussies have tested positive for Covid in the past week, with states including New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, recording more than 8,000 cases in the past 24 hours.

Over the past week, NSW recorded the most infections with 61,000, while more than 50,000 people tested positive for the virus in Victoria. 

And those figures are expected to get worse in the coming weeks as the winter chill grips the nation and new, highly infectious Omicron strain BA.5 becomes dominant.

Australia is also now facing a double whammy with rising cases of the flu making this winter the worst influenza outbreak in years, causing chaos in the workforce.

Now Queensland is tipped to be the first to bring back mask mandates in a bid to stem the tidal wave of infection.   

Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard revealed there had been ongoing talks with his interstate colleagues about mask mandates returning. 

'I can say that nationally, there is increasing pressure,' he told 4BC's Peter Fegan. 

'There is a school of thought that we should be mandating masks again.'

Hundreds of thousands of workers are likely to be forced to stay home during the next month, adding to the crippling staff shortages smashing many businesses nationwide.

Influenza case data from the Health Department showed that the weekly figures have already gone past the five-year ­average and hit more than 147,000 this season. 

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had celebrated the lifting of almost all mask rules earlier this year with an awkward slow-motion video on social media showing her ripping off her mask.

But it now looks like the celebrations may have been premature and short-lived - and may affect other states too.