Dr Fauci praises Australia’s coronavirus response and Melbourne’s face mask rules

America’s top Covid expert says Victoria lockdown and mask-wearing struck right balance between health and economy and he wished US adopted same mentality.

In an interview hosted by the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne-based Doherty Institute, Fauci said Australia was “one of the countries that has done actually quite well” in handling the virus.

Fauci, who is the most senior member of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, said that Melbourne’s lockdown and mandatory mask-wearing had struck the right balance between public health and opening up the economy.

Asked by Melbourne University’s dean of medicine, Shitij Kapur, why Australia had been so successful, Fauci said Australia was “a gigantic island”

“When you have a country like Australia, which is a gigantic island, it’s probably easier to contain in and out,” he said