Rolling coverage: coronavirus ‘eliminated’ in Victoria after 28 days of zero cases

Victoria has recorded zero COVID cases 28 days in a row, a milestone that marks community elimination. But the crisis is not over.

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Victoria has recorded no new coronavirus cases for the 28th day in a row — reaching the milestone epidemiologists say signals elimination in the community.

The long-awaited landmark comes after the state’s crippling second wave which saw Melburnians endure a mammoth 112-day lockdown as case numbers soared.

Commander of Testing Jeroen Weimar said he was “confident” that there is no community transmission within the state on Friday morning.

“What we’re saying is we haven’t seen any of this virus in Victoria for the last four weeks, that’s a fantastic result,” he told 3AW.

“We can be confident we don’t have community transmission right here right now within Victoria.”

He said despite Victoria’s success in quashing the virus, there was still real risk of it spreading again.

“As we saw just last week with our colleagues in Adelaide we do have active cases on our borders in other parts of Australia,” he said.

Life is slowly returning to normal in Melbourne. Picture: David Crosling

“We all can’t wait to bring Australians home and back into Victoria but we still have risk, the rest of the world is still on fire with coronavirus.”

The last infections of coronavirus in Victoria were on October 30, when four infections were recorded.

Victoria has not recorded more than 28 consecutive days of zero new COVID-19 cases since before the first case was diagnosed on January 25.

It comes as Australia’s comeback “is on”, Scott Morrison says, after an extended period dominated by coronavirus restrictions.

After a long and hard year, the Prime Minister declared the country had a lot to look forward to in 2021.

“My enduring and largest impression of this year is I’m just so proud of Australians and particularly Victorians in what they’ve been through most recently,” he said.

“The comeback is certainly on, but we’ve got a lot further to go. We can look forward to a 2021 where Australians go from strength to strength.”

Congratulations Victoria, 28 consecutive days of 0 new cases reported 💕
Yesterday there were 0 lives lost and 9,828 test results received. There are 0 active cases.
More detail: https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz #StaySafeStayOpen #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/bOrsxTQn3q

— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) November 26, 2020

Leading epidemiologist Tony Blakely on Thursday said there was a “90 per cent plus probability” the virus was gone from Victoria.

“I don’t think there’s any virus out there circulating in Victoria and we’re heading for eradication,” he told 3AW.

“It’s quite an extraordinary achievement.”

He was also confident any future outbreaks would be able to be controlled quickly.

“We’ve leant so much from the past six months,” he said.

“Our surveillance, contact tracing and testing should … be enough to stamp it out.”

Despite signs the virus had largely been vanquished, acting Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng on Thursday night confirmed COVID-19 fragments had been detected in Geelong wastewater.

He urged anyone who lived in or who had visited Geelong’s northern suburbs or Lara between last Saturday and Tuesday to get tested if they had any symptoms.

Scott Morrison says the country has a lot to look forward to in 2021. Picture: Ian Currie

“We have had few of these positive wastewater results recently and, while we haven’t discovered any undiagnosed case of coronavirus, it is possible that there may be an infectious person in this catchment,” Prof Cheng said.

Fragments were last week found in wastewater in Altona, Benalla and Portland despite no known local infection. 

Under the state’s original road map, Victoria was due to move to “COVID-normal” after 28 days without cases but the government has since said this will not happen until next month.

Health Minister Martin Foley said any restriction changes would be based on expert advice, and Victoria’s COVID-free status needed to be protected.

“It is extremely fragile until such time as a vaccine is distributed,” he said. “The Victorian government’s response is taken on the advice of public health experts. Each step of the way is assessed and reassessed as the epidemiological and other evidence inform public policy decisions.”

ANDREWS RULES OUT HOME QUARANTINE

The Andrews government has rejected a hotel inquiry recommendation to allow the home quarantine of returned travellers, in an effort to keep Victoria’s borders open.

Instead, plans for a ­revamped two-tier hotel quarantine system — in which new arrivals who test positive to coronavirus are transferred to higher level accommodation that other returnees — are being finalised before international passengers begin touching down from December 7.

In a key recommendation of Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry interim report, former judge Jennifer Coate called for the state’s quarantine system to incorporate home-based quarantine and possibly electronic monitoring for those ­allowed to isolate away from hotels.

But Daniel Andrews said home-based quarantine was inconsistent with the position of the National Cabinet, and would see other states close their borders to Victorians.

Premier Daniel Andrews says home-based quarantine is inconsistent with the position of the COVID-19 national cabinet. Picture: Getty Images

“The Prime Minister and other first ministers have made it quite clear that there is not a consensus, there is not a view at a national cabinet level that home quarantine is an appropriate to the risk level that we face at the moment,” the Premier said.

“I think we are going to have a hotel-based system but it will look and be different to what it was last time.”

After South Australia announced all COVID cases would be transferred from its quarantine hotels to a dedicated medical facility — possibly an old hospital — Mr Andrews indicated a similar system could be adopted in Victoria’s revamped program. “The notion of a dedicated health hotel is well known to us,” he said.

Training and infection-control drills at Melbourne hotels continued on Thursday. It is believed returned travellers may need to undertake two health checks before being sorted into hotels.

A police commander from NSW this week briefed Victorian authorities on the interstate program. Victoria’s Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said his force “took a lot away from that”, as officers prepared for the revamped scheme. He said police would have a “significant involvement in this program”.