Australia, NZ travel bubble: Victorian cases could jeopardise progress
Victoria’s inability to control coronavirus clusters is jeopardising a travel bubble deal with New Zealand and keeping NSW isolated from other states with the country’s chief medical officer conceding NZ authorities would be concerned.
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Victoria’s inability to control coronavirus clusters is jeopardising a travel bubble deal with New Zealand and keeping NSW isolated from other states.
NSW has been praised for suppressing COVID-19 outbreaks, but its residents will remain cut off from other states and even overseas travel options until national leaders are satisfied Victoria is no longer a risk.
Western Australian Premier Michael McGowan said he was going to announce his states borders reopening was set for August 8, but has held back due to the “dire” situation in Victoria.
Meanwhile Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy has conceded Victoria’s rate of community transmission of the virus could impact progress on a New Zealand travel bubble.
“The New Zealand authorities would certainly be concerned about that and they would be watching that,” he said.
“We are currently working with New Zealand on what would be the conditions that we would want for that sort of a border reopening to occur.”
Prof Murphy said NSW had done a good job of stamping out community transmission, and could not explain why Victoria was struggling.
He said here were a number of factors, including the geography of the outbreaks and an element of “luck”.
“It is not really possible to say why (NSW) have managed to bring community transmission under better control than Victoria, there could be a lot of reasons for that,” Prof Murphy said.
“Both Victoria and NSW had by far the largest number of initial cases from return travellers and both NSW and Victoria have been our concerns in terms of community transmission.
“NSW have, very fortunately, been in a much stronger position in recent weeks.”
Prof Murphy pointed to NSW Health’s success in stamping out an outbreak around Bondi Beach earlier in the pandemic.
“Remember the Bondi Beach outbreak, they set up pop-up clinics, they ramped up their response and brought it under control, that is what Victoria is doing now,” he said.
Earlier on Monday Premier Gladys Berejiklian shot down suggestions the NSW/Victoria border should close after 16 new cases were recorded down south yesterday.
Ms Berejiklian said although the border will not close, travel to and from the Victorian hot spots is strongly discouraged.
“The border between NSW and Victoria will continue to stay open, however, as is consistent with the health advice from Victoria, and also from NSW, nobody from NSW should be travelling to those hot spots at this present time,” Ms Berejiklian said this morning.
“People should consider whether they should be travelling to Melbourne at this point in time whilst community transmission is where it is,” she said.
The areas in particular to avoid are Brimbank, Cardinia, Hume, Casey, Darebin and Moreland.
Only two new cases of coronavirus have been identified in NSW since yesterday, one being an overseas traveller and the other is under investigation.
12 of the 16 new Victorian cases are from community transmission, which is most concerning to health experts.
Of the new Victorian cases, one is a Black Lives Matter protester believed to have contracted the virus at an outbreak in a H&M store. Health officials say he did not get the virus at the protest.
About 83 per cent of the nation’s cases last week were from Victoria.
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Major clusters in Victoria now include close contacts of a family in Keilor Downs, where 11 cases are linked over nine households. Another 13 cases are Stamford Plaza hotel contractors. More than 1000 close contacts are being monitored.
NSW is watching the situation to ensure Victoria’s failings do not affect the state’s plans to reopen, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian expected to receive further advice on Monday after an initial briefing from her chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant.
“The NSW government, in consultation with (Dr Chant), will continue to take the steps required to protect the health of our citizens, ” Ms Berejiklian’s office said.
At least 10 of Victoria’s new cases were from an unknown community source, four were connected to known clusters and two were being investigated. In several cases sick Victorians had ignored advice by continuing to go to work while sick, or mingling with family members even after testing.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews rolled back some of the state’s eased restrictions, including limiting household gatherings to five guests, and venues to 20 until at least July 12. This will affect the $1.5 billion that Treasury estimated would be poured back into the national economy once Victoria implements stages two and three of easing restrictions.
Victoria chief health officer Brett Sutton urged families to reconsider interstate travel, in a further blow to tourism in NSW, where Victorians normally spend $3.7 billion a year.
Originally published as Australia, NZ travel bubble: Victorian cases could jeopardise progress