Victoria’s roadmap on track despite case surge of 2297 new Covid infections and 11 deaths
Melbourne is still expected to reopen ahead of the original roadmap despite the state’s highest daily case tally since the start of the pandemic being recorded on Thursday.
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Victoria will reopen regardless of case numbers from next week when the state meets its key 70 per cent target.
Daniel Andrews on Thursday confirmed the state would reopen – and Melbourne’s lockdown would lift – as soon as the target was met.
“We will deliver the roadmap,” the Premier said outside parliament.
“We have fundamentally, a really important agreement with the Victorian community. You get vaccinated and we open up. I do what I say, and that’s why we’re going to be opening up, because people have got vaccinated in record numbers.”
It comes despite Victoria recording the highest daily case number in the country since the start of the pandemic.
At that milestone, Melbourne’s 9pm curfew will lift, the lockdown will end, travel limits will increase and hospitality venues will reopen to 50 patrons outdoors.
Victorians will also be able to gather outdoors with up to 10 people.
But Mr Andrews didn’t rule that further freedoms could come earlier than planned.
NO QUARANTINE FOR ACT TRAVELLERS
Victoria has downgraded the ACT from a Red to Orange Zone, scrapping the mandatory 14-day quarantine requirement from Friday.
Travellers from the ACT will still need to complete a Covid test within 72 hours of arriving in Victoria and isolate until they receive a negative test result.
The change aligns with the lifting of lockdown in the ACT from 11.59pm tonight.
VCE EXAMS: CHANGE FOR CLOSE CONTACTS
Victorian students exposed to Covid will get an exemption to sit all VCE exams under a sweep of new changes to isolation requirements.
Education Minister James Merlino announced that all year 12 students who are primary close contacts will still be able to sit exams in a dedicated room, supervised by staff in PPE.
Students who are close contacts will enter through a separate entrance.
But teenagers who are confirmed to have contracted the virus will not be able to sit their exams and will instead receive a derived score.
Deputy Premier James Merlino said the state’s drastic jump in Covid case numbers had come as a surprise.
Victoria recorded a new record high of 2297 cases on Thursday, with 11 deaths.
“We had hoped to see a plateau in numbers but today’s number still lands in the projected range of the Burnett modelling,” Mr Merlino said.
The deaths included a man in his 50s from Moonee Valley, a man in his 60s from Moreland, and two men from Melton.
One was aged in his 60s and the other in his 70s.
A man in his 50s also died, along with a man in his 70s from Shepparton.
Two women — one in her 70s and another in her 80s — also died.
So too did a man in his 80s from Brimbank.
Victoria recorded a total of 2297 new locally acquired cases and 11 more deaths on Thursday.
Acting chief health officer Ben Cowie said the high number of cases reported on Thursday would hit hard for many Victorians.
Nearly half of the cases were aged under 30, with 63 per cent of cases under 40 years old.
There are concerns of disproportionate increases across some parts of regional Victoria and an increased growth in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne, with undetected transmission in the community.
“There’s no single event that we can really pin this very substantial increase in numbers relative to the last couple of days to explain it,” Professor Cowie said.
The state’s health department confirmed the new figures, which marked a new national record and the first time an Australian state has broken 2000 daily cases.
There are now 20,505 active cases across the state, after 82,762 tests were received on Wednesday.
At least 86.7 per cent of eligible Victorians have received one dose of a Covid vaccine, while 61.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.
The state previously broke the national record with a daily case spike of 1965 five days ago, on October 9.
Wednesday’s deaths take the number of lives lost during Victoria’s outbreak to 125 and the toll of the pandemic in Victoria to 945.
It comes as Victoria gallops towards its 70 per cent reopening target several days earlier than expected.
COUNCIL TO DUMP $232M REDEVELOPMENT PLAN
Melbourne City Council is blaming the pandemic as it’s set to dump plans for a $232m redevelopment of a CBD precinct into a “green civic space”.
When announced in December 2018, the Bourke Street project was touted as “a new landmark for Melbourne in terms of sustainable urban design and how we activate our streets for people to enjoy”.
It would have involved demolishing an old council building, replacing it with a 10-level tower and refurbishing an adjacent former bank building to create an integrated office, retail and leisure precinct.
But next week, city councillors will consider a management recommendation to dump the project amid widespread concern about the impact of devastating lockdowns on CBD businesses.
Council CEO Justin Hanney said: “The most important thing we can do to support local businesses when we reach the 70 per cent double-dose target, is to entice people into the city.”
The $232m investment would have seen new offices for staff, but Mr Hanney said the availability of office space due to lockdowns meant the council now had other options.
The council has been under fire for removing car lanes and rolling out new bike lanes during the pandemic, and pushing ahead with a multi-million dollar public art project in Southbank
WHERE TODAY’S CASES WERE FOUND
• 650 cases in Melbourne’s southeast;
• 633 cases in Melbourne’s west;
• 693 in Melbourne’s northern suburbs;
• 144 cases in the eastern suburbs; and
• 170 cases in regional Victoria.
Covid testing commander Jeroen Weimar says greater mobility across the state has led to higher case numbers.
Over the past four or five weeks, officials have seen a continued trend of rising case numbers, with particular concern around the southeastern suburbs.
Mr Weimar said he hoped Thursday’s record number was an isolated peak.
“If I look at mobility data for last week, again it shows there’s a bit more movement in the general community than there was the week before that and the week before that. I don’t think it’s a huge surprise,” he said.
EARLY END TO LOCKDOWN POSSIBLE
Health authorities have been told to be ready to end Melbourne’s lockdown as early as next Thursday, with home visits potentially set to be greenlit ahead of schedule as the state’s double-dose vaccination rate gallops towards 70 per cent.
Meanwhile, the company behind the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine says it will no longer produce the jab in Australia by Christmas, amid hesitancy and criticism it has faced throughout the national rollout.
Biotech firm CSL said the UK-invented jab received a lot of criticism despite being approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
The company will close its Melbourne production site because competing vaccines Pfizer and Moderna have outstripped demand for AstraZeneca.
“Notwithstanding the perhaps disproportionate criticism that this vaccine’s reputation has experienced, we couldn’t be prouder that the AstraZeneca vaccine has given protection to many millions of Australians,” CSL chairman Brian McNamee told investors.
More than 12 million doses of AstraZeneca have been administered across the country since the beginning of the vaccine rollout in late February.
“Obviously we don’t want to manufacture something that’s not going to be utilised, and we will have a number of options moving into the future,” said University of Queensland’s Paul Griffin, who sits on AstraZeneca’s advisory board.
OUTDOOR RETAIL RULE ANGERS BUSINESSES
Large swathes of Melbourne’s retail sector will remain shut when lockdown ends, with key operators labelling “comical” outdoor trading restrictions as unworkable.
Department store chain Myer and shopping mall giant Vicinity Centres will not reopen when the state hits the 70 per cent double vaccination rate, likely next week.
Industry has labelled the state government’s move to only allow outdoor trade until the 80 per cent target is reached as “deeply disappointing”.
Vicinity is the state’s biggest shopping mall owner with prized properties, including Chadstone, Emporium, The Glen and the city’s DFO outlets.
“We are waiting for the 80 per cent target,” a Vicinity spokesman said on Wednesday.
Myer said while it welcomed “innovative thinking” to serve customers during lockdown, it was not planning to open outdoors.
“We will continue with our popular and free contactless click-and-collect service at our stores and serving customers through myer.com.au,” it said.
Victoria’s harsh restrictions mean scenes of excitement as Sydneysiders queued outside retail stores ahead of their reopening this week – when the state hit the 70 per cent target – will not be repeated here at the same mark.
The outdoor-trading edict comes despite hairdressers being allowed to open for up to five fully vaccinated customers.
Australian Retailers Association chief Paul Zahra said he did not expect many Melbourne retailers to try to offer an outdoor shopping service.
“Outdoor retail is very impractical,” he said. “There are many issues – from the safety and security of products, goods and services, to a lack of available outdoor space and property logistics, along with the staff training required to transact in this new setting.”
Mr Zahra said the outdoor option would primarily be taken up by temporary “pop-up” operators which could put further pressure on their established rivals.
The retail sector was “deeply disappointed” Victoria’s main retail reopening was being delayed until 80 per cent, the former David Jones boss said.
“This is out of step with the successful approach taken in NSW,” he said. “Every day of trading counts for these retailers who have suffered through the most extended lockdowns in the world.”
Block Arcade owner Grant Cohen said it was a nonsense to suggest retailers could offer outdoor shopping in a city famous for having four seasons in one day.
“It’s just not possible,” Mr Cohen said.
“It’s a comical suggestion. It’s not a great business plan to be relying on the natural elements to be running a business, particularly in Melbourne.
“You could lose stock from bad weather. I don’t think you are going to see business risk it.”
Design A Space operates three fashion boutiques selling Australian designers in Windsor, Fitzroy and the CBD.
Owner Chris Lutz said he would not try to offer outdoor trade.
“We are not a market — to do it properly requires a pretty significant investment,” he said.
“Where do we put a change room? What do we do when it rains? It’s just not practical.”
Bunnings said it was exploring “possible trading options” which could include allowing shoppers into its nurseries when the 70 per cent target was reached.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Paul Guerra said outdoor retail would be an added expense and “almost impossible” for many retailers.
“This added cost and complexity will not be attractive to business owners who have already suffered significant losses due to being forced to close for the majority of the last 12 months,” he said.
“They will simply wait until they can trade viably at 80 per cent.”
JAB HUBS POPPING UP IN PRIORITY AREAS
Victorians will be able to get vaccinated at their local cafe, shopping strip or gym outlet as pop-up jab hubs are deployed in priority areas.
The walk-up, pop-up sites – to be concentrated around Melbourne’s mid and outer north, and west and south east – aim to vaccinate dozens of people over two to three hours.
The first opened on Wednesday at the Degani’s Mernda Junction cafe, with places in Broadmeadows, Craigieburn, Glenroy and South Morang to be set up next.
Health Minister Martin Foley said the program was designed to provide greater access to vaccines in the most convenient, familiar and easy to deal with locations.
It comes as a teenager who almost died from Covid issued a heartfelt plea for Victorians to get vaccinated.
Broadmeadows teenager Saela, 17, spent nearly a month in Box Hill hospital after the virus swept through her family of eight in late August.
Saela, who was ineligible to be vaccinated at the time, was placed in ICU for 15 days. She was the youngest person on a ventilator and doctors described her as the “sickest person in Eastern Health”.
“I was so scared I was going to die. I just stared at the ceiling and I was alone. Everything made me scared. I was broken,” she recalled.
Saela’s mother Michelle, who also contracted the virus, said she felt “helpless” and “alone” as her daughter fought for life alone in a hospital bed on the other side of the city.
“I watched Covid rip through every member of my family and hurt them, and I couldn’t do anything,” Michelle said.
“I thought someone was going to die. It was much easier for me to prepare for a loss than to hope.”
Michelle said that without the protection from the vaccine the virus was able to cause Saela’s condition to deteriorate rapidly.
“Last week she was in school, next week she was in a coma,” she said.
Saela, who is still recovering, made an impassioned plea for people in her age cohort to get vaccinated.
“There are a lot of people who are my age who think they’re invincible but Covid almost killed me,” she said.
“I don’t want anyone my age to have to tell their family: ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get vaccinated in time’.”
It comes amid reports that dodgy online websites were offering people the opportunity to purchase fake vaccine certificates.
Mr Foley said it was “beyond comprehension” that people would pay money to pretend to be vaccinated.
“Don’t waste your money, avoid the crooks and go and get vaccinated,” Mr Foley said.
Victoria reported 1571 cases and 13 deaths on Wednesday.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton issued a bleak warning that “everyone will get Covid” as the state gradually opened up.
But he said Wednesday’s case numbers indicated “we’re probably on a plateau at the moment”.
“I think we’re very likely to be headed down from here, but it’ll be a bit of a bumpy numbers ride,” he said
CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL GETS ALL CLEAR
No new Covid cases have emerged from the Royal Children’s Hospital after an infected parent visited the neonatal intensive care unit last week.
The Herald Sun on Tuesday revealed 29 babies were exposed to the virus in the hospital’s neonatal ward with two of the infants deemed tier one and the others tier two.
RCH chief executive officer Bernadette McDonald on Wednesday said the infected parent visited the ward on Thursday and Friday last week with the hospital alerted to a Covid positive result on Monday evening.
“We are providing as much support as we can to those families as we go through these challenging times,” she said.
A string of parents have been confirmed as carrying the virus after spending time in RCH wards in recent weeks including the surgery, cardiac, intensive care and oncology wards.
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