Masks should not be mandatory in Greater Brisbane after Friday unless social distancing is impossible, say leading academics. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has stopped short of declaring masks would no longer be mandatory from Friday (1 am) when other restrictions are set to ease, but epidemiologists want to see the rule scrapped while there is no community transmission. Greater Brisbane residents were forced into a 72-hour lockdown on January 8 and masks were mandatory in public, even when travelling alone in a car. The restrictions were eased on January 11 with face masks still mandatory within most indoor places. The clampdown came after a cleaner at a hotel used to quarantine international travellers tested positive for the more contagious UK variant of the virus, but other than the cleaner's partner also testing positive, there has been no community transmission of the strain.