It makes sense to me that masks make minimal difference in areas where the virus is spreading rapidly, given that so much of the spread is in households where p

It makes sense to me that masks make minimal difference in areas where the virus is spreading rapidly, given that so much of the spread is in households where people are unmasked anyway. But my home city of Melbourne, Australia is a worthwhile case study on the effectiveness of masks. We've been mostly free of covid since about October last year, with a small number of small outbreaks due to leaks from traveller quarantine, and so far each one has been suppressed within a few weeks with lockdowns and masks. A new outbreak of the Delta strain has just emerged in the past week, and we're back in lockdown while contact-tracing and testing is undertaken. But the pattern of the last few outbreaks, including this one, has been pretty clear; little-to-no spread has happened in contexts where most people are wearing masks - i.e., supermarkets and other indoor shopping venues, and almost all the spread has happened in households/workplaces where people are unmasked, and hospitality venues where people unmask to eat/drink.