Australians in areas of COVID-19 community transmission such as Melbourne should wear masks if they cannot maintain physical distancing, the federal health department now says.

The Victorian Government has already ordered two million reusable masks for people in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire, premier Daniel Andrews announced on Friday afternoon.

“Masks in those circumstances where you can’t maintain distance will be a feature of our response to the pandemic for the foreseeable future, for many, many months,” he said.

It’s the first time Australian health authorities have actively encouraged people to wear masks and is a major development in the long-running debate over their effectiveness in the pandemic.