Asia Today: New mask requirement in Australian city may last

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Wearing masks became compulsory in Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne on Thursday as hot spot Victoria state posted 403 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths.

The daily infection tally was down from a record 484 cases posted on Wednesday.

Much of the spread is blamed on sick workers who do not take time off from their jobs while they wait for coronavirus test results. The state government announced Thursday that workers who do not have sick leave will be eligible for a 300 Australian dollar ($213) support payment while they await test results.

A large majority of Melbourne residents appeared to be complying with the new mask requirement.

Police will “exercise discretion” on imposing a AU$200 ($143) fine for failing to wear a mask for a week while people in Melbourne adjust to the rule, the government said in a statement.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday gave no indication of how long mask-wearing might be compulsory.

“As challenging — well, I think it’s pretty simple, frankly — but as challenging as some may find wearing masks, we’ll see the benefits of that in the days and probably the weeks to come,” Andrews said.

“It’s why it may not just be a feature of the second wave, it may be a feature for many, many months to come,” he added.

A male commuter who wore a mask told Australian Broadcasting Corp. at Melbourne’s busy Southern Cross train station: “I don’t really enjoy wearing it.”

“But if it means that we’re saving lives in the community, then we just got to suck it up and do it,” he said.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

— China continues to see new cases of coronavirus in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, with 18 reported on Thursday. The outbreak has been...