Covid 19 -

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Thought I'd share my experience:

After hearing that it is now recommended that all Victorians wear a mask out in public, I went out and bought a box of 50 disposable masks today, happy to do my bit to protect both myself and others.

So here's my situation. I live by myself, in Gippsland, and have been working from home on a full-time basis since the end of March. My work is about 50kms down the road, hence most of my work mates don't live near me and I don't tend to socialise with them much outside of work. I don't have a big circle of friends near where I live because I spend a lot of my time at work, 50kms away.

I have my daughter with me on an alternating weekly basis. I see my mum, who lives not far away, a few times a week. She just turned 70 but is pretty fit and healthy, apart from getting bronchitis nearly every winter. (funnily enough, she hasn't so far this winter, touch wood).

So, for me, the biggest risk area for contracting CV-19 is my weekly grocery shop. So, I used a mask today for the first time. When I did my shop at the local Woolies, I could count on one hand the number of others that were wearing a mask too. And most of those were older folk. I certainly received my fair share of looks.

Given that I am a glasses wearer, I did find the mask a little awkward to begin with. My glasses tended to fog up at times. But after a while i did get used to it, and I got used to people having a second look. To me, it reminded me of the first time wearing any PPE for work; it felt different initially, but I soon got used to it.

One major positive out of wearing the mask for me was that I found I touched my face (eyes, mouth) significantly less whilst wearing the mask compared to without.

The benefit from that element alone would encourage me to continue to wear a mask in high risk areas (dong a shop at the local supermarket).