Health experts said there is currently a much greater chance of being hit by lightning in Melbourne, than contracting the virus in the community.

No sense
The Andrews government is also under growing pressure, with business owners and industry groups raising concerns on the randomness of the revised reopening plan announced on Sunday.
Dogs can be groomed but human haircuts are out, people can travel more than five kilometres to a cemetery but only for an anniversary or a birthday, people are now allowed to go hiking and fishing but only within five kilometres of their house and people can now swim at a public pool but not play golf or tennis.
Retail, restaurants, gyms and the hairdressing and beauty industry are still unclear when they can reopen and years 7 to 10 students are unsure when they can return to school, despite just five cases all linked to known outbreaks on Monday.
Owner of dog grooming business, Shampooch, Kylie Gallimore is back in business. Graham Tidy
The Premier revealed on Monday his mask edict, which is expects to remain in place over summer, is not based on any health advice. It comes after it was revealed the now abandoned curfew was also a captain’s call and former judges and QCs expressed alarm that proposed new powers are “unprecedented, excessive and open to abuse”.
“I have gone further [than the health advice],” Mr Andrews said. “I’ve been clear in my judgement, significant benefit – very low cost. Seriously, what’s the issue? Why is it such a massive issue?”
Asked why he would require Victorians to wear masks when there is no health purpose, Mr Andrews dismissed the question. “That’s an esoteric debate, isn’t it? Maybe there will be a time when we have the luxury of having those sorts of debates.”
More likely to be hit by lightning
But health experts slammed the claims on Monday and warned it could actually backfire, amid a public backlash and calls for a more targeted approach in high risk settings.
“I think this is a big issue, people will get fatigue,” infectious diseases physician Peter Collignon said. “If you have a lot of community transmission, masks make sense but it is about five or six on the hierarchy of things which have benefits.”
He said that too many people want an easy, single solution but warned “masks would have not have stopped Victoria’s outbreak”.
“We know how this virus transmits. If you make people wear masks when they are in the middle of nowhere or in a car and now have to be fitted masks, you are going to have a real problem with enforcement,” he said.
“We may have to do this over the next two or three years. If you are in the middle of the park with your family the chance of you getting it or transmitting it is minuscule.”
Peter Collignon, professor of microbiology at the Australian National University. Supplied
Deakin University epidemiology chair Catherine Bennett put the current odds of contracting the virus in Melbourne are longer than one million to one, compared to around a one in 12,000 chance of being struck by lightning.
“They need to trust people to make sensible decisions and enforce mandatory masks where they need to in risky situations,” she said, suggesting a more targeted approach should be adopted from October 19. “There are zero cases of mystery transmission today, even allowing for five with five million people that’s one in a million.”
Plucked, waxed, lasered
Business owners continued to vent their frustrations over the new reopening plan on Monday.
Fitness clubs are not high risk. There is now clear and irrefutable evidence of that from all over the world, but the government is ignoring facts and keeping clubs closed on a guess, said Tim Schleiger from VIC Active – which represents 100 fitness clubs, 400 staff and 300,000 members.
Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang asked: “Why is it that we can now meet one other household, up to a maximum of five people in a park for two hours, yet cannot share a meal or a coffee with the same five people served outside at a café or restaurant for a two-hour sitting,” he asked.
Jared Quast, a barber at The Bearded Man in Prahran, is still waiting to open. Wayne Taylor
Victorian Head of Ai Group Tim Piper is also calling for Mr Andrews to allow a phased reopening of the beauty industry to provide a much needed morale boost.
“People are wanting to be plucked, waxed, lasered, threaded and coiffured. It’s a rite of passage for some and would make them feel so much better about themselves,” he said.
Joshua Mihan, owner of The Bearded Man on Chapel Street in Prahran, said the biggest thing is the uncertainty with a month of bookings ready to go and no date yet on when they can reopen.
“The financial burden is really showing now,’ he said. “There’s a lot of confusion. We went from being an essential business in the first lockdown to now being the last on the list to reopen.”