But Mr Andrews ruled out mandating issuing P2 and N95 masks to all Victorian hospital and aged care workers treating COVID-19 patients, saying it was a matter for health experts to issue guidelines about proper use of protective equipment?
"The Victorian guidelines have changed to ensure that healthcare workers wear P2 or N95 respirators when they're caring for patients who are COVID positive or suspected cases," he said.
On Friday, the agency updated its advice and recommended healthcare professionals wore N95 masks when treating confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients who displayed challenging behaviours such as shouting or who were exhibiting mental illness.
For many in the sector, the updated advice on PPE did not go far enough because it stopped short of recommending across the board use of P2 or N95 masks by healthcare workers dealing with all suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases
At the beginning of August, a group of concerned doctors led by Ben Veness wrote to Health Minister Greg Hunt asking that all healthcare workers treating suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients be provided with N95 face masks in order to prevent them from contracting the potentially fatal disease
The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association said it stood with other healthcare workers in calling for properly fitted N95 masks to be made available to health professionals treating COVID-19 patients
The group said a recent survey of nurses and midwives found nearly 45 per cent of workers required to wear the masks had not gone through the proper testing procedures to check that they fit correctly
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