Covid-19 Australia: Victoria’s health minister Martin Foley says the state’s snap lockdown is being considered “day by day”
Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley has refused to be drawn on whether the state’s snap seven-day lockdown will be extended, as the state records five new locally acquired Covid-19 cases.
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Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley has refused to be drawn on whether the state’s snap seven-day lockdown will be extended.
He said the state’s current Covid-19 crisis was a “day by day” event, and in a lunchtime press conference could not say the lockdown would end on Friday,
“It is a seven-day circuit breaker shutdown and what we have been clear and upfront every day is that every day we review based on intelligence and material we have before us,” Mr Foley said.
“It is too early to make that announcement. Today the second day of seven days. We will continue to work through the evidence as it comes in, day by day, and keep Victorians informed and accountable through opportunities like this, through social media, through any other forms that can keep Victorians up-to-date with the evolving situation and more importantly, to keep Victorians engaged in what they can do to keep ourselves, our community, our state, safe.”
The state recorded five new local cases of Covid-19 on Friday, four linked to a food distribution worker who had no symptoms but worked on May 18 and 19, and the other linked to a Port Melbourne workplace outbreak.
Two other two cases were overseas acquired hotel quarantine cases.
State-run vaccination centre delivered a record 21,626 vaccinations on Friday, and lines outside these centres today could see that number topped by the end of Saturday.
“Two days ago, we set a record for our COVID-19 tests, and equally for our vaccinations in Victoria, and we did it yesterday as well and today we landed a hat-trick of records,” Mr Foley said.
“There were, yesterday, 21,626 vaccinations in our state run centres and when you include the great work still being done by our GP network is well over 40,000 vaccinations in Victoria yesterday.
“Yesterday, there were also a further record of 56,624 Covid tests. We know as a result of this evidence that the people of Victoria are rightly taking this outbreak incredibly seriously, and are also responding to the vaccination program, as our way to get out of this Covid pandemic.
“So we are grateful, equally, to not just those people who got tested and got vaccinated, but we are even more grateful to the millions of Victorians who are doing the right thing and are deserving as to the five reasons – and are observing the five reasons as to why we can leave home.”
These permissible reasons to leave home include shopping for essentials, for exercise, for medical care and caregiving, getting a COVID-19 test, work or study, and if you are authorised to get vaccinated.
Covid response commander, Jeroen Weimar, said that in the past five days, more than 170,000 tests had been completed.
“We have 35 positive cases in the outbreak and we now have 3000 primary and close contacts in the system who are now isolating and I’m pleased to confirm that of the 3000 primary close contacts, 62% have returned a negative test,” he said.
He said the state had 207 testing sites open across the state and most of those are running at extended operating hours.
Mr Foley was also asked about the number of arrests that were made by police from an anti- lockdown protest that was allegedly cancelled.
“Look, the virus does not respond to protests, the virus response to public health measures,” he said.
“There are five legal reasons to leave your home. Protesting against a virus is not going to work. And if you do, you are breaching the public health orders and Victoria Police will hold you to account for that, and that involves significant fines.”
FIVE NEW VICTORIAN COVID-19 CASES AS CLUSTER GROWS TO 35
Victoria has recorded five new locally acquired Covid-19 cases detected from more than 56,000 tests in the 24 hours to 8pm Friday.
The Victorian Department of Health has added another 20 exposure sites to the list of alert venues, as concerns grow the snap seven-day lockdown may be extended.
The state enters the second day of the current lockdown, Victorians’s fourth. The total number of active cases in the state is now 45 – 35 of them are community based and linked to the latest cluster.
Some states and territories have closed their borders to non-essential travel and the latest outbreak has brought new restrictions. These are detailed in out latest State of our borders graphic.
URGENT ALERT FOR VACCINATION HUB
A suburban town hall used as a vaccination hub has been exposed added to Victoria’s growing coronavirus exposure sites list, which now has 127 venues.
The Department of Health listed the Preston City Hall on its website on Friday afternoon, deeming the location a Tier 1 exposure site after a Covid-positive person attended the venue.
Health officials are now advising anyone who visited the Gower St site on May 22 between 9.30am and 11am should contact the Health Department, get tested, isolate and quarantine for 14 days.
Victoria recorded four new local Covid cases in the past 24 hours, as the state entered its first day of a week-long snap lockdown.
The new infections mean the total number of virus cases in the latest outbreak has grown to 30.
Two new cases were also recorded in returned travellers in hotel quarantine, bringing the number of active Victorian cases to 39.
More than 47,400 Victorians were tested on Thursday, and 17,223 vaccinations were also administered.
“It’s very early days,” Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton said, addressing reporters on Friday. “It is not over yet.”
“We just need everybody contacted to abide by quarantine,” he said.
Mr Sutton again urged anyone with symptoms to get tested. “You have to work on the assumption that it is Covid … until proven otherwise.”
More than 15,000 primary and secondary contacts of confirmed cases have been identified, and all of them have been asked to isolate for 14 days.
“Of those 15,000 people we now have 1452 identified as primary close contacts, associated with both the Whittlesea outbreak and the Port of Melbourne outbreak,” Victorian Covid-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar said.
Victoria’s acting premier has also asked for Australian Defence Force members to help with the outbreak.
There is “additional assistance” the state needs, and Acting Premier James Merlino said he contacted the Prime Minister on Friday.
“We’ll be putting a formal request through for additional ADF staff, so the request for 160 ADF staff for at least the next fortnight,” Mr Merlino told reporters during a press conference.
The defence staff would be used to supplement police doorknocking positive cases and primary close contacts, he said.
Victorians can now only leave the home for five reasons during the tough restrictions, which include shopping for necessary goods and services, authorised work or permitted education, exercise – with a two hour limit with one other person – and caregiving either for compassionate or medical reasons.
The lockdown, Victoria’s fourth in 14 months, is also expected to deliver a $1.3 billion hit to the Australian economy.
CBA head of Australian economics Gareth Aird said the restrictions were equivalent to stage-four orders imposed in Victoria last August, and were expected to slash economic activity in the state by about 15 per cent over the week, The Australian reports.
The $1.3 billion implied hit to GDP did not include indirect effects, Mr Aird said, such as a reluctance to travel to and from Victoria once the lockdown was lifted
Since Monday, cases have spread from Whittlesea in Melbourne’s north to Casey in the outer southeast, Melton in the western suburbs and inner city suburbs such as Port Phillip, Stonnington and Boroondara.
SA SHUTS BORDER TO VIC AFTER VIRUS SCARE
South Australia will completely shut its border with all of Victoria after two teenagers hitchhiked their way into the state to see a friend before the lockdown came into effect.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens — who is also the State Coordinator — made the announcement on Friday afternoon and said he would be signing a new declaration later in the day.
Under the new directions, border residents within 70km/h will still be allowed to enter.
The state had earlier this week only closed its border with Greater Melbourne, no longer allowing travellers to enter South Australia unless someone was a returning resident, an essential traveller or had been granted an exemption.
The stricter border rules were announced after it was discovered two Victorian girls who had been reported missing crossed the border into SA overnight to visit a friend.
But, SA’s chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier denied suggestions that the border arrangements were announced because of their actions.
Instead, she said the decision was made to better supported the stay-at-home directions currently in place in Victoria and because Victorian authorities‘ focused wastewater testing resources on the Melbourne cluster and had reduced the testing in border communities to accommodate.
“These are very young people that are still children. People that age make all sorts of decisions and undertake all sorts of things that adults may not agree with or approve of,” Professor Spurrier said.
“They've had their testing done and are negative. That means that anybody they’ve been in contact with are at no risk.”
The two teens managed to meet a third person in the town Goolwa, about 82km south of Adelaide, and boarded a school bus that was travelling to the Victor Harbor High School with students on board.
SA Police said the bus was stopped en route to the school.
“Police are working with other agencies including SA Health, Victoria Police and Victor Harbor High School to ensure the safety of those on board,” a police spokesman said in a statement.
“The two teenage girls have been isolated and are co-operating with police.”
SA Health said it was working with police to arrange Covid-19 tests for the teens.
Anyone who believes they gave the two girls a lift from the Victorian border to Goolwa is being urged to isolate immediately and contact SA Health on the Covid hotline on 1800 253 787.
Victor Harbor High School Deputy Principal Adrienne Conley issued a statement on social media about 11am on Friday to inform parents of the situation.
“This morning South Australian police stopped a school bus with some of our students on it in relation to a possible breach of COVID-19 restrictions,” she said.
“At this stage we are awaiting further advice from SAPOL and health authorities on what we need to do.”
A second statement was issued half an hour later that said all families whose children were on the bus had been contacted.
“Their children are in the process of being taken home until further health advice is provided,” the statement said.
Ms Conley later thanked the school cohort and wider school community for the way the event was handled.
“Your calm and supportive approach, combined with quick response from SAPOL and SA Health enabled this situation to be managed with limited disruption to the majority of our school community.”
Victoria was plunged into a seven-day lockdown at midnight on Friday in a bid to contain its most recent outbreak which began after a Melbourne man contracted the virus in a SA medi-hotel.
QANTAS’ VACCINE INCENTIVE PROGRAM
Qantas customers could soon receive flight vouchers or frequent flyer points if they’ve been vaccinated against Covid-19.
The vaccine incentive program would be Australia’s first, and would be available to anyone who has had the full Covid-19 vaccination.
The initiative would likely run until the end of the year, The Australian reports.
Qantas chief customer officer Steph Tully said there were a lot of good reasons to get the Covid vaccine, and they were happy to add another one to the list.
“As a large company that relies on travel to put our people and planes back to work, we’re obviously motivated to help with the national vaccine effort,” Ms Tully said told The Australian.
“Hopefully other companies are looking at incentive options as well.”
She said Qantas was still thinking through what the incentive program would look like with a variety of options on the table.
“It could be Qantas points, Qantas or Jetstar flight vouchers or status credits for frequent flyers,” said Ms Tully.
“Qantas is a big supporter of Australia’s vaccine rollout because of what it means for public health, but also because it’s the key to keeping our domestic borders open and safely restarting international travel as well.”
NEW ASTRAZENECA BLOOD CLOT FEARS
Nine more people have developed rare blood clots after having the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the nation’s medicines watchdog has revealed.
It brings the total to 27 confirmed cases with a further six probable cases still under investigation.
It means one in every 109,500 people vaccinated are at risk of the rare clots, only one of the 33 cases has been fatal.
Two of the cases were in two women from NSW (a 60-year-old and an 82-year-old), a 72-year-old male from WA, a 51-year-old woman from WA, a 73-year-old woman from Victoria and a 63-year-old man from Queensland.
In addition, there were three cases classified as probable in the last week.
These cases were in an 85-year-old woman from NSW, a 62-year-old man from Victoria and a 76-year-old woman from Victoria.
The majority of people with the clots (17) have been discharged from hospital and are recovering, four have left hospital but require outpatient medical care and nine patients remain in hospital.
Only one case in a 48-year-old woman from NSW died as a result of the clots.
‘CHALLENGING’ DAYS AHEAD
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday said the next seven days in Victoria would be challenging.
“Of course we are very mindful of the distress and the difficulty this will impose upon people right across Victoria as a result of what has been described rightly, by the acting Premier as a circuit breaking lockdown.”
Mr Morrison said he hoped the lockdown wouldn’t go as long as seven days.
He told a Canberra media conference any previous success was not guaranteed to continue.
“This is a very challenging virus that continues to test us not only here in Australia, but around the world.”
He urged Victorians to get vaccinated.
“As the acting Premier said, yesterday, and again today, there are ample vaccines for those who will come forward and receive those vaccines in Victoria, and our simple message to you is please come and do that.”
‘NOT NEEDED’: VICTORIA TURNS DOWN VIRUS SUPPORT
Victoria has rejected offers for additional contract tracing help and extra personal protective equipment, the country’s top doctor says.
Chief medical officer Paul Kelly said the state had been declared a commonwealth hot spot, meaning it was eligible for additional support.
“We’ve offered personal protective equipment to Victoria. They don’t need anymore at the moment they have plenty,” Professor Kelly said.
He also said it had offered additional help with contract tracing.
“We’ve also offered support with the contract tracing if that was needed. Currently we’ve been told that isn’t the case,” Professor Kelly said.
It comes as he urged Victorians and Australians to go out and get the vaccine to protect their loved ones and the rest of the community.
He also said the state government did the right thing when it imposed the circuit breaker lockdown.
“It is clear there has been a super-spreading event from one of the members of the current cluster, especially in the workplace, that points to high risk at this time in terms of transmission through the community.”
He also said the state government did the right thing when it imposed the circuit-breaker lockdown.
But he labelled hotel quarantine as “essentially safe”, despite the latest breach.
“It’s quite clear that aerosols are playing a part to this and so each of the states that have looked at these directly and specifically have made particular changes to their arrangements, they’ve all been a little bit different — but that reflects their own hotels and hotel quarantine systems,” the country’s top doctor said.
He also said in Australia the variant strains were still controllable even if they were up to 50 per cent more transmissible.
“If the numbers remain small, you can still get on top of it,” Professor Kelly said.
Meanwhile Australia’s vaccine logistic boss, Commodore Eric Young, said 110,000 doses were administered nationwide yesterday with more than 30,000 in Victoria.
He said 20,000 “one-off” AstraZeneca doses were delivered today in the state and another 20,000 would be delivered on Tuesday.
Another 70,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine would be going to the state hubs, Commodore Young said.
It comes as Victoria’s state government announced it was widening the vaccine program to include those aged between 40 to 49.
DOZENS BOOTED OFF TRAIN
Dozens of passengers travelling to the Northern Territory on The Ghan have been forced off after it was discovered they visited “high-risk” Covid-19 locations in Victoria.
Thirty-two guests from Greater Melbourne that boarded the train on Wednesday returned to Marla, in South Australia’s northwest near the NT border, on Thursday afternoon and were ushered onto a bus.
Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions — that runs the service — confirmed to NCA NewsWire that the coach was on its way to Adelaide and travellers would be accommodated overnight.
The company said effected guests on the Ghan Expedition line that disembarked in Alice Springs as well as those on the Indian Pacific that will arrive in Adelaide will also have overnight accommodation.
“Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions is currently working with state government authorities and effected guests as a result of the developing COVID-19 situation in Victoria and subsequent border restrictions,” a Journey Beyond spokesman said.
“Our priority is to ensure the safety and welfare of our guests and crew while complying with state government mandates.
“We appreciate our guests’ experience have been significantly impacted through no fault of their own, or ours, and we are working to help manage their individual circumstances as best as possible.”
SA chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said she was aware of the incident and had spoken to her counterpart in the Top End.
“There are a number of people on The Ghan who have been at high-risk exposure sites and my understanding was that they would quarantine in Alice Springs,” she said.
“My team has been working through the rest of the passengers … SA Health have that under control.”
Both central jurisdictions imposed border restrictions with Victoria as the state continues to record more locally acquired cases.
As of 6pm Wednesday, anyone who has been to Greater Melbourne is no longer permitted to enter SA, with essential travellers and returning residents able to come home but must complete two weeks of self-isolation.
The NT has a hotspot direction in place which came into effect at midnight on Thursday, meaning anyone who has been to Greater Melbourne or Bendigo must complete 14 days of isolation at their own expense of $2500.
– Jack Paynter
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