Whether a government declares wearing a mask a mandatory or not is secondary to being sensible enough to realise that what the situation dictates is not necessarily what's legislated.

Holiday areas such as ours, whether it's mandated or not, are among those areas where you know it might be best to mask up.

We can ride the case numbers each day as much as we want, but what won't change for the foreseeable future is we are living in a pandemic.

It is sensible to mask up wherever you are in the state.

If a business or an operator asks you to wear a mask, then unless you are one of the very few with sound medical reasons not to wear one, then just do it.

Don't give the poor people at the business a mouthful. Just politely put the mask on and get on with living a peaceful, happy life.

It won't hurt you and heck, it might even save you.

And ultimately if you had a choice of wearing a face mask or experiencing another lockdown, what would you choose?

It's a no contest right?

On the coast, we are living without the restrictions greater Sydney is experiencing.

But many of the visitors in our area at this time of year have come from Greater Sydney.

The detection of the virus which causes COVID-19 in the sewage treatment facility that services Batemans Bay late last year and just last week in Ulladulla tells you that someone who resides or visited those areas had at one stage been infected.

Yes, you can continue shedding the virus for several weeks after you are no longer infectious, but why take the risk of assuming there are no active cases in our area? As Broken Hill residents discovered recently, living in a remote area is great - until a visitor brings the virus to your doorstep.

Play it safe and mask up in:

Get ahead of the curve while you are enjoying the waves on the coast.