Cedar Meats to reopen as lockdown rule-breakers plummet
Just one Victorian has been fined for flouting lockdown in the past 24 hours after 569 spot checks were carried out across the state. It comes as coronavirus outbreak site Cedar Meats prepares to reopen.
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Just one Victorian has been fined for flouting lockdown in the past 24 hours after 569 spot checks were carried out across the state.
Since Monday, police working on the 500-strong coronavirus taskforce were advised of a “new process” which required supervisor approval before a fine is issued.
They were also encouraged to use “increased discretion” when issuing the penalties.
It comes Cedar Meats announced they will reopen parts of the site on Monday, after the number of cases connected to the business rose to 90.In a statement, a spokeswoman for the company said:
“Cedar Meats is restarting its cold storage facility on Monday 18 May 2020. Cedar Meats is not recommencing production on 18 May 2020. The cold storage facility requires a minimum of staff.”
“Restarting the cold storage facility has been planned with the advice and support of the public health team at the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The safety and well being of staff is Cedar Meats number one priority.”
In response to comments made earlier today by Prof Sutton, the spokeswoman said Cedar Meats had no further statement to make and reiterated that that they “welcome” and are “co-operating” with the Worksafe investigation.
NINE NEW CASES AS MACCA’S CLUSTER GROWS
Nine more cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Victoria in the past 24 hours, including five linked to Melbourne’s main workplace outbreaks.
Three are related to the Cedar Meats abattoir in Brooklyn while a further two are connected to McDonald’s Fawkner in the city’s north.
There is no link between the two workplace clusters, according to Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.
McDonald’s Chief Executive Andrew Gregory confirmed the Fawkner franchise’s growing figure to 3AW, adding the source of the original case remains unknown.
“We’ve now gone back and contacted every employee and ensure every one will be tested,” he said.
After closing for a deep clean last Friday, the store reopened on Tuesday with workers from other restaurants taking over its operations.
Authorities are now carrying out contact tracing with those infected while 92 staff members have been quarantined and tested.
The results of other tests are still to come, with one worker attending a shift on May 8 before being diagnosed.
All staff have been asked to quarantine for 14 days as a precaution.
However, despite the Premier previously praising efforts to contain the Cedar Meats outbreak, Professor Sutton has stated the cluster’s containment could have been handled differently.
“I think there’s always stuff to improve,” he told 3AW.
“I recommended that it shut and go to absolutely skeleton staffing five minutes after I heard about the third linked case.
“It’s pretty clear it’s been an explosive outbreak.”
Prof Sutton said in future they would likely shut similar sites quicker.
“I think even two linked cases is probably enough to shut a place down,” he said.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have waited for a third linked case, maybe for these settings we should shut an entire place down.”
MILLIONS OF JOBS HIT BY CRISIS
About 2.7 million Australians lost their jobs or had their hours reduced between March and April, according to shock new figures detailing the scale of the coronavirus crisis.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed the unemployment rate has climbed from 5.2 per cent to 6.2 per cent.
More alarmingly, the underemployment rate soared 4.9 per cent to a record 13.7 per cent, with 603,300 people having to deal with fewer hours.
“The large drop in employment did not translate into a similar sized rise in the number of unemployed people because around 489,800 people left the labour force”, ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.
The overall workforce participation rate saw an unprecedented fall to 63.5 per cent.
“This means there was a high number of people without a job who didn’t or couldn’t actively look for work or weren’t available for work”, Mr Jarvis said.
– Tom Minear
READ THE FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY, HERE
Have you lost your job due to the coronavirus pandemic and want to share your story? Let us know at news@heraldsun.com.au
‘HEARTBREAKING’ TRUTH OF ECONOMY REVEALED
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australians must “stand firm together” and fight the economic devastation brought by coronavirus after it was revealed 594,000 jobs were lost in April.
Mr Morrison said it was a “very tough day” for Australia and that the massive loss of work was “shocking”.
The PM said Australians must brace themselves for further “hard news to take” over the coming months and that the impending economic recession would be tougher than the global financial crisis.
“This is harder,” he said. “We haven’t seen this before and for young people who have never experienced that, this is beyond anything they could imagine.”
The jump showed the importance of JobKeeper and reopening the economy, he said
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the data was “heartbreaking” and revealed the “real and painful” economic impact of the virus.
“This reiterates why our financial commitments to respond to the coronavirus were so important and are so important,” he said.
READ THE FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY, HERE
HOW BACK TO SCHOOL COULD QUASH NEW CASES
Reopening schools could actually reduce the rate of coronavirus community transmission, researchers believe.
James Cook University scientists found schools were “not the problem” — rather, workplaces and gatherings of adults contributed to higher rates of COVID-19 transmission.
Emma McBryde, Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Modelling led the study, which found it was safe for kids to go back to school, but adults would have to take extra precautions.
Scientists looked at the susceptibility of infection in those aged under 20 and modelled contact rates between people in schools.
DEVASTATING TOLL OF LOCAL BUSINESS CLOSURES REVEALED
“We concluded that school-closure has minimal impact on COVID-19 transmission,” Prof McBryde said.
“Reduction of out-of-home contacts and workplace closures has the greater impact.”
With lockdown interventions, researchers estimated the rate of community transmission at less than one — meaning an infected person would pass the virus onto less than one other person.
But if schools opened and the lockdown otherwise continued, the rate was even lower due to a decline in home-contact.
However, if lockdown restrictions were eased, the reproduction rate would rise.
“If people return to work, even with appropriate social distancing, it will increase again to just below one, assuming strict physical distancing continued to occur,” Prof McBryde said.
“If we ease up on physical distancing, it is very likely to go above one again putting us at risk of a second wave.”
Adults from 30 to 50 were “the greatest contributor to transmission”.
FINES LESS LIKELY AS RESTRICTIONS EASE
Police are scaling back coronavirus fines in a major policy shift following the easing of lockdown restrictions.
Only two $1652 fines were issued in the last 24-hour window, despite officers conducting 667 spot checks statewide.
Earlier this week police officers were told of a new process — supervisor approval is required to issue a fine, and there must be “increased discretion” applied in dealing with possible offenders.
A police spokeswoman said of the new discretionary approach: “While the change of Chief Health Officer’s directions are being understood by the community, members have been asked to use a heightened level of discretion.
“Victoria Police recognises there may be some genuine ambiguity from the community and police members alike regarding the interpretation of the new directions.
“This new process will assist in providing a fair and balanced approach to all breaches and ensure accuracy in offence determination,” she said.
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