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Beauty industry, dog groomers allowed to reopen early as state records 37 new cases

Only one of the six coronavirus deaths reported overnight occurred yesterday, DHHS have confirmed. It comes amid good news for Melbourne’s beauty industry as 37 new virus cases were recorded.

Andrews announces changes to beauty industry

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Victoria has seen another promising drop in new coronavirus figures — recording 37 cases and six deaths in the past 24 hours.

Only one of the six deaths occurred on Friday, with the other five occuring prior to Friday, the DHHS confirmed.

The new infections are the state’s lowest daily increase since June 26, when 30 cases were recorded.

All of the six deaths reported are linked to aged-care.

There are 126 Victorians are in hospital, nine are in intensive care and six are on a ventilator.

Victoria recorded more than 14,500 tests on Friday across more than 200 sites.

Healthcare workers make up 194 of the state's 1251 active cases, while there are 625 active cases linked to aged care facilities.

Regional Victoria has 58 active cases — with none recorded in the past 24 hours.

Melbourne’s 14-day average is now 61.6 and the regional daily increase is just 4.3 over the past fortnight.

There have been 115 cases acquired from an unknown source in Melbourne in the past 14 days, while there are seven cases of unknown origin in regional Victoria.

Ballarat currently has no active coronavirus cases, while Colac Otway has 28 active cases, Greater Geelong has seven active cases, and Greater Bendigo has two active cases.

It comes after 43 coronavirus cases were reported on Friday, a figure which fell from 51 a day earlier.

The state’s coronavirus death toll since the start of the pandemic to 716.

The total number of coronavirus cases recorded in across the state since the start of the pandemic is now 19,800.

TOO SOON TO MAKE SPORTING CALLS, ANDREWS SAYS

Premier Daniel Andrews said Opening up the summer’s sporting and cultural events would come in the final stage of the roadmap.

He said plans were progressing for the staging of the Boxing Day Test, Australian Open tennis, 100th staging of the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup, however it was far too early to know exactly how they would proceed.

“These are really significant events that people are really keen to get back to, to get back to something approaching normal.

“It is very difficult this far out to predict with any certainty what any of those events will look like. We just need more time.

“We are in constant discussions with all of those different bodies who run those events - whether it is Tennis Australia, racing clubs - we will be able to have more to say a little bit further down the track.

“I want Christmas to be as close to normal as possible, I want the Boxing Day test to happen - I’d like to think that we’ve got a chance that there will be significant crowds there, but I can’t announce that now.

“We will have more to say about what summer in the city and what summer across Victoria is going to look like.

“I think the mix of outdoor spaces used for drinking and dining, the fact that we will have hit our targets and we are open and have found a Covid normal, I think this is going to be a summer like no other.

“It is going to be absolutely amazing to see all of us pull together, looking out for each other, having defeated this thing.“

HARD BORDER BETWEEN REGIONAL AND METRO IN THE WORKS

Premier Daniel Andrews said work was underway to implement borders between metro and regional areas.

He said many essential workers had to be able to move between the city and regional areas for work - including thousands of nurses - though conceded their may be delays at road blocks.

“We will defend that border really, really tightly,” Mr Andrews said.

“We can’t have a situation where people are travelling for anything other than essential reasons into regional Victoria.

“We have checkpoints at the moment, we have a degree of enforcement, Police are doing a great job.

“We may step that up, we may go to a new level to make sure that only those who absolutely need to go into regional Victoria are doing that.”

MELBOURNE BUSINESSES ALLOWED TO OPEN EARLY

Premier Daniel Andrews has announced Melbourne’s beauty services can now open when the city enters its third step in recovery — which could be as early as October 26.

“Beauty and personal services where a mask can be worn for the entire time the person is getting of the services that they are accessing, will be able to proceed in the third step, alongside hairdressers,” Mr Andrews said.

Due to the need to wear a mask, facials, face tattoos and face piercings will not be included under the revisions.

The sector was previously pegged to reopen on November 23, if coronavirus case targets are met, as part of the state government’s last step on the re-opening road map.

Pet groomers will also be allowed to offer contactless services from September 29 with owners to drop their pets off at the venue.

However, mobile pet grooming will not be affected by the update.

Much of Melbourne’s public transport has lay deserted since March
Much of Melbourne’s public transport has lay deserted since March

NEW TWIST IN CAUSE OF CRIPPLING SECOND WAVE

Deep flaws in Victoria’s contact tracing regime have been exposed in damming leaked audio from Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, with Professor Brett Sutton revealing the system was challenged and that problems had been obvious even when infection numbers were low.

In audio from a September 3 video call obtained by the Saturday Paper, Prof Sutton told hundreds of physicians there were “intrinsic challenges with contact tracing”.

He said the department was using older technology and that officials had been forced to move to a paper-based system in order to accommodate the surge workforce needed as coronavirus cases had soared.

Prof Sutton is also believed to have said recent moves to digitise the system should have been part of the department’s response “for years” and that they were still receiving some case notifications by fax.

BUSINESSES IN COVID-FREE REGIONS BEG TO REOPEN

COVID-free parts of regional Victoria should be released from restrictions now and allowed to get back to business.

That’s the view of the state’s business, tourism and farming chiefs, who say tarring rural areas which have no coronavirus cases with the same brush as large regional centres, where infections remain, is illogical at best.

Cities such as Geelong — with high-rise office buildings, hundreds of thousands of ­people and close to Melbourne — should not be shackled to COVID-free country and coastal towns, leaders said.

The state government has flagged stage three restrictions could be eased in regional ­Victoria as soon as next week, but rural communities fear all regions will be treated the same.

The Regional Australia Institute said “dedicated, place-based” stimulus measures — designed together with local community leaders — were now needed.

“This recession will be multi-speed geographically so it is vital we move from a uniform response to highly tailored, place-based responses in the next phase of recovery,” RAI chief economist Kim Houghton said.

Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Paul Guerra said it was time to “chunk together” local government areas with no, or low, COVID cases and free them from restrictions.

“Regional Victoria has done a great job of controlling the spread and the longer it takes for them to open up, the more difficult it’s going to be, so let’s take the opportunity to get those towns, those regions, opened up,” he said.

Head of the Victorian Tourism Industry Council Felicia Mariani said it was "completely illogical” regions which had never had a COVID case — or been COVID free for some time — were subject to the same restrictions as those which had infections.

Tourism and hospitality businesses in COVID-free areas should be trusted to open up safely now, Ms Mariani said.

“There needs to be a respect for the capability of this industry to step up and to conform to whatever the requirements are to deliver a safe experience,” she said.

“The tourism and events industries is one of the most creative and innovative industries of all, and we have shown time and again that we have the ability to respond in difficult times”

Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke also called for country areas “that have never recorded a single case or have no active cases” to be freed from restrictions now.

“Regional Victorians who can safely return to COVID normal should be given the means to do so as soon as possible,” he said.

Business owners in small COVID-free regional towns told the Herald Sun they were ready to open and serve their local communities — with safety precautions in place.

Premier Dan Andrews said regional Victoria could take two steps towards COVID-normal next Wednesday, with the average daily cases remaining under five.

“There is great cause for optimism and to be hopeful that what’s happened in regional Victoria is proof positive that this strategy can work, is working, and will continue to work,” he said.

There are currently 74 active COVID cases across regional Victoria, with more than half that number in Geelong and Colac alone.

Donna Copperwaite bought her day spa in Queenscliff Harbour in December 2019 and was open just three months before having to close due to COVID-19. Picture: Mark Stewart
Donna Copperwaite bought her day spa in Queenscliff Harbour in December 2019 and was open just three months before having to close due to COVID-19. Picture: Mark Stewart

RULES NEED A MAKEOVER

Beauty therapist Donna Copperwaite understands better than most the importance of staying safe from COVID-19.

The youngest of her three children has a chronic health condition which requires a tracheostomy (hole in the throat) to breathe, and is prone to serious respiratory infections.

What Ms Copperwaite doesn’t understand, is why her beauty business in the COVID-free coastal village of Queenscliff, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, must remain closed for so long.

“It will be 25 weeks of closure in our first year of business.

“The beauty industry is such a clean industry, with such high hygiene standards, and that was the case even before COVID-19,” Mrs Copperwaite said, adding the same was true of metropolitan beauty businesses.

“Why are we treated any differently to hairdressing, when we are under the same award and bring so much to the economy?”

Having purchased the day spa, overlooking pretty Queenscliff harbour, in December last year, she was able to operate for just three months before the first COVID closures, Mrs Copperwaite said.

But while times were definitely tough, she was trying to stay positive and remained hopeful restrictions would be eased sooner rather than later.

“Beauty, massage and skin services are integral to people’s mental health and wellbeing, confidence and overall care for their body,” she said.

“I’m worried about my staff, clients and the community. We need to open now!”

Although included in the same broad, ‘G21 region’ as busy Geelong – less than 30km away and which has a number of active coronavirus infections – historic Queenscliff has no COVID cases.

The State Government has warned it is watching the G21 region carefully, and may keep harsher measures in place because of the number of infections in Geelong.

Glenrowan Vintage Hall Cafe owner by Pam Stirling. Picture: Jason Edwards
Glenrowan Vintage Hall Cafe owner by Pam Stirling. Picture: Jason Edwards

HARSH TREATMENT FOR KELLY COUNTRY

The site of bushranger Ned Kelly’s famous last stand, the small country town of Glenrowan is 236 kilometres northeast of Melbourne and 14 kilometres from the regional centre of Wangaratta.

“We’re hardly the party end of the State,” jokes the owner of the Glenrowan Vintage Hall Cafe, Pam Stirling.

Glenrowan is also ‘hardly the COVID-infected part of the State’, with no cases.

But, under the State Government’s regional COVID guidelines, Glenrowan is – and will continue to be – treated like large regional centres, some of which have numerous active cases.

“It means everyone in our district still can’t eat out,” Ms Stirling said.

“And because we’re a small community, doing takeaway is really not viable … there’s just not enough people to make takeaway a profitable thing.

“Being a country area people tend to cook for themselves at night, so we normally rely on people coming in and having a bit of lunch, and also on tourists, but tourism, of course, is dead, so without our locals being able to come in … we are just covering the cost of electricity and food – just.”

Ms Stirling stressed she was not critical of Premier Dan Andrews and the Victorian Government’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and was hopeful restrictions would relax soon.

“I believe it was necessary to lockdown Melbourne, as harsh as it was … but I do question if going to stage three restrictions up here was actually necessary the second time around,” she said.

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Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/business-owners-in-coronavirusfree-regions-of-victoria-are-begging-to-be-able-to-reopen/news-story/769d20bc367333d869b5a91ad97a1d89