22 new Covid cases; Melbourne curfew returns, lockdown extended for two weeks
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said Victoria was “right on the cliff edge” as cases threatened to spiral out of control and average exposure days ballooned.
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A night curfew will again be imposed on Melbourne and playgrounds will be shut as health authorities further harden the city’s lockdown.
It comes as Victoria recorded 22 new Covid cases overnight, including five new mystery infections.
The city lockdown has also been extended by a further two weeks, until 11.59pm on Thursday, September 2.
A curfew will also be implemented from 9pm to 5am, beginning at 11.59pm on Monday, although Premier Daniel Andrews pleaded with Melburnians to begin following the measure from 9pm.
The premier said there was no other option but to tighten rules as Covid was now spreading “undetected” across Melbourne.
He lashed Victorians who were bending the rules in the midst of an outbreak.
“How many weddings and funerals have happened with handful of people? It is selfish, they are shitty choices and they will keep us all locked down for longer than we should be,” Mr Andrews said.
“I am angry and we are all angry, most of all because it takes away from the brilliant work, that millions of Victorians are doing every single day.”
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said Victoria was “right on the cliff edge” as cases threatened to spiral out of control.
“But if we can pull back from it, we can absolutely get to the finish line that we know we want to get to … But let’s not kid ourselves. There have been breaches, there have been people bending the rules that put us all at risk,” he said.
“We have to tighten those elements and we have to recommit ourselves to doing as much as we possibly can.”
Under the new restrictions, essential workers will be required to obtain permits for authorised work.
Additional restrictions will also apply to the construction industry, which will again operate as it did last year with staffing reductions in place, except for critical infrastructure and emergency repairs.
At large-scale construction sites, staffing will be reduced to 25 per cent and at smaller sites only five workers will be allowed.
The move comes as concern grows about mystery cases, illegal gatherings and children spreading the virus.
People will be banned from removing their masks to drink alcoholic beverages in public.
Under the strengthened rules, designed to curb Covid transmission, playgrounds, basketball courts, skate parks and outdoor exercise equipment will also be closed, while exercise will be limited to just two people in total.
“Exercise is just that. It’s not an opportunity for seven households to get together,” Mr Andrews said.
“It’s not Cath and I going for a walk and five other families. There’ll be a time for that but it’s not now.
“We are running alongside this virus at best. We’re at a very delicate point of this outbreak.”
Prof Sutton said he was torn when making the decision to close playgrounds and skate parks.
“I thought about it long and hard, as a father of three kids who love to go to the playground,” he said.
“It is one of the only escapes from home in a day. It isn’t an easy choice.
“The fact remains we have seen lots and lots of gatherings that playgrounds and kids are interacting in large numbers and in proximity and what kids do.”
The average exposure days — the number of days an infectious person is out in the community — was 0.61 and declining at this point of the city’s previous outbreak.
But in the current outbreak the average exposure days are 1.8, meaning cases diagnosed on Sunday were infectious in the community for a total of 15 days, compared to zero at the same point during the last outbreak.
“We (are seeing) too many cases, too many mystery cases, we now have 12 or 13 different chains of transmission, the origins of some are unknown to us … (which) means this is spreading in an undetected way across the community. We are at a tipping point,” Mr Andrews said.
Prof Sutton said a “grumbling” few cases today could end up being 100 in a fortnight, or thousands in a month.
“The evidence around curfews is not dissimilar to evidence around a whole bunch of other interventions,” he said.
“They are hard to tease apart from the suite of interventions that happen but between stopping small gatherings and large gatherings, density quotients, social distancing and the like.
“It is one of a suite of interventions that was very successful last year in Victoria and there are published studies on curfews and people are free to look at them.”
Mr Andrews said he knew people were weary and fatigued by lockdown.
“Each of us need to find it in ourselves to make good choices,” he said.
“I don’t want us to finish up like Sydney, where it’s fundamentally got away from them,” he said.
“We have an opportunity to do better than that.”
Prof Sutton urged anyone with the mildest of symptoms to get tested immediately, saying the system could easily process up to 50,000 tests daily.
People are able to drive a further 20 minutes, for example, if it means that they can reduce their wait times at a testing clinic, he said.
“That is what will uncover these chains of transmission that we haven’t found,” he said.
It comes as NSW on Monday announced 478 new cases, along with seven deaths. Just 87 of those new cases were in isolation for their entire infectious period.
In the NT, Greater Darwin and Katherine will enter a three-day snap lockdown from noon, after an infection was detected in the community.
And the nation’s capital has extended its lockdown for a fortnight after announcing 19 new cases overnight.
Meanwhile, 25.8 per cent of Victorians are fully vaccinated against Covid, compared to 26.1 per cent of Australians overall.
And 47.3 per cent of Victorians have received a first dose, with the nation tracking at 47.8 per cent.
BREAKDOWN OF LATEST CASES
Of Monday’s 22 new Victorian cases, 17 are linked to known outbreaks, with 14 in quarantine for their entire infectious period.
The latest infections are:
• Eleven cases linked to Al Taqwa College (four students, seven household members)
• Two mystery cases linked to Lygon St (in the same household)
• Two linked to the Newport cluster (one linked to Wolf Cafe, one at Newport Football Club)
• Two cases in Altona North, who have since been linked to the Newport cluster
• Two linked to Glenroy Primary (one student and household member)
• One linked to CS Square shopping centre in Caroline Springs (household contact)
• One linked to a mystery case in Dandenong
• One linked to the St Kilda East engagement party
Seventy-nine infections are associated with schools, along with 39 linked to CS Square shopping centre, 32 cases linked to the Glenroy cluster and four linked to a Middle Park case.
Six Victorians are in hospital with Covid, including two men and a woman in their 40s, two women in their 20s and a child in ICU.
It comes on a day where almost 30,000 people turned out for a test, with 19,880 vaccine doses administered.
PEACOCK INN FURIOUS AT PARTYGOERS
A popular pub in Melbourne’s inner north said it has taken a financial hit from being linked to a party on the street outside — despite being closed at the time.
Peacock Inn owner Andrew Gilbert said he was stunned that functions were being cancelled and his staff were being blamed for the impromptu lockdown booze-up when they had not been at work since August 5.
The party, which occurred when a nearby resident in Northcote set up turntables and played tunes from a balcony, saw hundreds of people descend on local streets.
Mr Gilbert said some revellers appeared to have bought drinks from other venues or brought their own, but his venue had not operated.
He said he had no power to move people on from outside his pub, but urged everyone to follow lockdown orders to prevent stay-at-home restrictions lingering.
“We are all in this together. Every party is another week (in lockdown) you could say.
“Every time people are putting on parties and trying to have a good time when we are supposed to be at home.”
Mr Gilbert said ongoing costs are going “through the roof” while having to be shut, and yet more financial pain could be on the way because of the street party.
“It’s killing us, functions are being cancelled and everything,” he said.
He said functions could bring in $5,000 to $10,000 worth of revenue for each event — and three had been dumped already.
He said he is also getting inundated with cruel emails and social media messages telling him he should be “ashamed” of himself.
FURY OVER MELBOURNE COVIDIOTS
Chief Commissioner Shane Patton joined the Premier in lashing Victorians who flouted Covid restrictions.
“We have seen some selfish behaviour and we have seen some absolutely outrageous behaviour,” he said.
“That has been reported widely with the Richmond pub crawl in and around those suburbs, and in parks with people you would describe as normal law-abiding mums and dads with kids, sitting around drinking beers, without masks, not adhering to the guidelines.”
Other breaches include:
• A Mornington Peninsula entrepreneur who planned to host a dance party with up to 1000 guests, with a stage, tents and lounges on their private property;
• A dinner party in Southbank where eight people were fined; and
• A street gathering in Northcote where hundreds gathered to dance and drink.
Mr Patton said every breach was an example of “extremely selfish” behaviour.
“We’ve seen so many different breaches, it’s just ridiculous,” he said.
“Everybody knows they’re doing the wrong thing. They’re trying to get around the rules and guidelines. We have to adhere to the CHO’s guidelines.”
About 80 to 100 infringements were issued over the weekend.
It comes as police probe an engagement party allegedly held in breach of lockdown laws.
The event was attended by an infected person, amid fears it could spark another concerning Covid cluster.
A video of the celebration, seen by the Herald Sun, appears to show dozens of maskless family and friends crammed together as the groom-to-be jokes: “Clearly this is legal because this is a group-therapy session – that’s why my father’s here”.
Another party member than adds: “He’s a mental health clinician”.
It comes as a crackdown is launched to target illegal gatherings.
The Herald Sun understands two people, a mother and her adult son from St Kilda East, returned positive Covid-19 tests on Saturday.
See the pictures and read the full story here.
FEARS OVER MAJOR OUTBREAK SITES
Concern is mounting over clusters spread across the city after eight major outbreak sites emerged in little more than a week.
Contact tracers are now racing to connect five new mystery cases recorded on Sunday to existing clusters across Caroline Springs, Melton, Middle Park, Richmond, and Maribyrnong.
Mr Andrews on Sunday said stay at home orders could remain in place for months, if necessary, to prevent cases from snowballing in the same way as NSW.
“The choice, really, is between where we are now and hundreds and then thousands of cases,” Mr Andrews said, adding that the strategy was a bid to avoid the situation in NSW, where hundreds of thousands of extra vaccine doses were needed after lockdowns and contact tracing failed.
“I’m determined to make sure that it doesn’t happen here. I know no one’s enjoying this. But what’s worse than this is, well, being locked up until the end of October, or indeed the end of November, because that’s how long it may well take to get 80 per cent of people through the vaccination program,” Mr Andrews said.
Young people appear to be fuelling the spread of the virus, as new figures reveal that 83 people aged under 19 are infected.
Across the state, 44 children under 10 and 39 youths aged between 10 and 19 are infected with the virus.
Sixty-five people aged 20 to 40 years also have the virus.
“We’re dealing primarily with people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, they’re quite an active group, lots of social contacts, lots of clubs and lots of exposure sites,” Mr Weimar said.
Apartment block residents in St Kilda East, Glenroy and Carlton were also told to get tested and isolate at the weekend after being linked to the current outbreaks.
More than 500 exposure sites have been identified, including dozens of Tier 1 and Tier 2 sites across inner-Melbourne suburbs, which were added on Sunday.
Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien on Sunday called for the premier to tell Melburnians when the lockdown would end.
“It is certainly not the short, sharp circuit breaker we were all hoping for,” he said.
“We just want the premier to be upfront with us, tell us how much longer he thinks we are going to be locked down for and what those conditions will be.”
NSW CUT OFF FROM REST OF NATION
New South Wales is expected to be isolated from the rest of the country for months to come, as state leaders acknowledge its lockdown will never drive case numbers back to zero.
The worsening outbreak could throw into chaos the national cabinet’s agreed plan to reopen Australia, because it assumed there would be only small number of Covid-19 cases when the vaccination targets of 70 per cent and 80 per cent were reached.
The state recorded 415 cases on Sunday as Gladys Berejiklian said it was “not possible to eliminate it completely”.
“The best chance we have to live with it freely and safely is to get the case numbers down as low as possible,” the NSW Premier said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews agreed, saying there was “no way they’re going to get to zero cases”.
“Nothing else they’re doing is working … This is where they’re at now, they’re going to have to vaccinate their way out of this,” Mr Andrews said.
He said there was “no doubt” about the national cabinet’s plan to end lockdowns and reduce restrictions among state and territory leaders.
“No one’s walking away from the plan,” Mr Andrews said.
But senior federal government sources said that for the national cabinet plan to succeed, they expected states would keep their borders closed to NSW for months, and possibly until Christmas.
Mr Andrews said if Ms Berejiklian reopened the state at the 80 per cent threshold, and there were still many cases of community transmission, then “they’ll be locked out to here”.
He said the Doherty Institute modelling underpinning the national cabinet plan was based on Australia reaching the vaccination thresholds while having successfully suppressed the virus.
“That modelling does not assume that there are thousands of cases, and hundreds of cases every day,” Mr Andrews said.
“If we want to be open, if we want to have a new set of rules as we go into a new year, if we want to preserve our health system for everyone who needs it … then when we get to 70 and 80, we have to have cases down here, not raging.
“Otherwise I don’t know how that works.”
Mr Andrews maintained that was why it was paramount that Melbourne’s continuing lockdown was successful because the city and state could not reopen if it had thousands of cases, even if 80 per cent of the population over 16 was fully vaccinated.
“I’m determined to make sure that it doesn’t happen here,” Mr Andrews said.
With all of NSW now in lockdown, chief health officer Kerry Chant said on Sunday: “I cannot stress enough the seriousness of the current situation, and my grave concerns that these case numbers will continue to escalate.”
YOUNGEST VICTIM DEAD AT 15
A smiling teen has become the youngest Australian to die while having Covid-19.
Osama Suduh, 15, was from Sydney’s southwest, which has remained the state’s epicentre of the Delta outbreak.
Authorities confirmed on Sunday that although the teenager tested positive to the virus, the reason for his admission was because he had pneumococcal meningitis.
The devastating case came as NSW recorded 415 new local infections of Covid-19 and another four people died.
Authorities confirmed 381 cases were in hospital, with 62 in intensive case and 55 of them were unvaccinated, while seven had received their first dose of the vaccine.
Read the full story here.
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