Rolling coverage: Victoria’s coronavirus numbers remain stubborn with 12 new cases, one death
Five Coles supermarkets, including the Chadstone store, are among the latest coronavirus high-risk locations where shoppers have been told to be on high alert for symptoms. It comes as Premier Daniel Andrews dropped a strong hint on the restrictions that could be eased next week, saying Melbourne’s 5km travel limit is “on the table” to be lifted.
HS Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from HS Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
This coronavirus article is unlocked and free to read in the interest of community health and safety. Get full digital access to trusted news from the Herald Sun and Leader for just $1 a week for the first 12 weeks.
More shops have been added to the list of high-risk coronavirus locations in Melbourne.
The Department of Health and Human Services warned shoppers to get tested immediately if experiencing any coronavirus symptoms.
The locations include:
• Coles Oakleigh — October 2, 10-10.25am
• Chester Street Fruit Market, Oakleigh — 10.30-10.45am
• Coles Westfield Southland — October 2, 4.45-5.15pm
• Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre — Oct 3, 11-11.30am
• Coles Springvale — October 3, 11.45am-12.15pm
• Aldi Heidelberg West — October 5, 5.15-5.30pm)
• Coles Chadstone, October 5-6
• Manor Lakes Central Shopping Centre — October 6, 11am-12pm
• Coles Manor Lakes — October 6, 11am-12pm
STUDENT TESTS POSITIVE AT ST COLUMBA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL
Tracing is underway after a student at St Columba’s Primary School in Elwood tested positive to coronavirus.
“The student has not attended the school recently and the school will be able to reopen tomorrow as planned,’’ a DHHS spokesman said.
“A full public health investigation is underway.”
DAN HINTS AT RESTRICTIONS TO BE EASED
Premier Daniel Andrews has dropped a strong hint on the restrictions that are set to ease next Sunday after Victoria’s coronavirus numbers stubbornly remained in double digits.
Twelve new cases of coronavirus were recorded overnight, as Victoria’s crucial COVID-19 figures remain stubborn.
Another death was also recorded after a woman aged in her 80s succumbed to the disease.
At a press conference on Sunday morning, Mr Andrews said the controversial 5km limit was “on the table” to be lifted and said “significant” changes were set to be announced on October 18.
“A whole lot of outdoor activities is on the table. And we’ll also spend quite a bit of time thinking about what’s a safe group size for people outside to be able to join each other and to be part of the thing that we crave the most and that’s some of the connections that we have had to go without for such a long period of time … but that’s where we’re headed and they’re the things we’ll look at carefully,” Mr Andrews said.
“I think it will be significant, it will be the stuff that people are really missing.
“The other thing, too, there are some outdoor industries, there are some outdoor workers.
“We’ll be looking at very closely at those issues too.”
Mr Andrews also revealed his phone records and text messages — and those of his senior staff — would be handed over to the hotel inquiry.
Mr Andrews announced the board had made a request for the additional information following a focus on a critical six minute window which could hold the key to who decided private security staff would be used for the program.
“All of that detail will be given to the board, that will be done as soon as possible,” he said.
“I can’t give an exact timeline because Telstra and others have to provide us with those details, but that will be provided just as they asked.”
While Melbourne hitting a 14-day target of five cases is mathematically possible, the city is now unlikely to reach that goal.
The Premier said next week’s changes would not be everything outlined in step three of its road map.
“The magnificent job that Victorians have done and are doing means that we will be able to take some significant steps this coming weekend,” he said.
“They won’t necessarily be as broad, as far as we had hoped to go, but on Sunday, we hope to be able to have more to say — not just about what will come into effect soon thereafter, but also to paint a picture of what the weeks after look like.
“All of this is predicated on data … But we just have to keep making the point, when it gets down to these very low numbers, the narrative that sets behind those numbers, the stories that sit behind each of those cases, they become increasingly important.”
He flagged the changes would help people see their loved ones.
“We’re very, very close to taking some significant steps. They’ll be safe steps and on that basis, it won’t necessarily be everything that we had hoped to do this something Sunday, but it will be significant,” Mr Andrews said.
“And it will certainly allow people to better connect with the people that they love the most and that they miss the most. That’s a really important thing.”
NEW FAMILY CLUSTER IN WESTERN SUBURBS
Two of the latest cases are linked to Box Hill Hospital — a patient, along with a household contact of a known case.
One new case is linked to Chadstone, taking the cluster to 33.
A new family outbreak involving five people has broken out in Melbourne’s western suburbs, while another cluster of three people across two households is under investigation.
Two mystery cases have emerged in postcodes 3037 (Calder Park, Delahey, Hillside, Sydenham, Taylors Hill) and 3147 (Ashburton, Ashwood), prompting another reminder for locals in those areas to get tested if experiencing symptoms.
Metropolitan Melbourne’s 14-day rolling average has dipped back down and stands at 9.3, while regional Victoria’s is unchanged at 0.4.
Currently, there are 189 active cases across the state, including five in regional Victoria — all in Mitchell Shire.
The active cases also include 34 in aged-care, along with 18 healthcare workers.
The government on Sunday announced that close contacts of people who test positive will now be asked to undergo testing in the bid to nip cases in the bud.
The state government have changed testing requirements as the state continues to battle cases in double digits.
Close contacts will be asked to get tested on day 11 of quarantine, which will inform whether they can leave or face a longer time in isolation.
Mr Andrews said the move was an important step to “cast the net wider”.
The new rule will come into force from Sunday night at 11.59pm.
Nearly 13,000 tests were received on Saturday, with Mr Andrews thanking Victorians for an overwhelming turnout over the past week.
“We are just shy of 100,000 tests for the week, which is an amazing effort, and I want to thank each and every one of that almost an MCG’s worth of Victorians who have come forward to get a test,” he said.
‘WICKED DECISION’ VICTORIA HAS TO MAKE
Victoria may have to accept, and learn to live with, inevitable coronavirus outbreaks if its citizens are to be free to “halfway live again”.
That’s the view of Melbourne University epidemiologist and public health specialist Tony Blakely, whose research was used by the state government to justify its extended lockdown.
Professor Blakely said there was “a wicked decision” to be made in the next week as to how the mental health and economic harms caused by Melbourne’s stage four restrictions were balanced against the risk of future coronavirus waves.
“We’re going to need to get smart and somehow find ways of loosening up things that are priorities for us, but don’t actually give the virus too much room to move,” Prof Blakely said.
“For example, encouraging people to stay in their bubbles but opening up, or getting rid of, the 5km rule so that we can at least go to the Dandenongs for a walk … things we can do that give us as citizens and human beings, some sense that we are halfway living again.”
Read the full story here.
REGIONAL VIC BUSINESSES OBLIGED TO CHECK ADDRESSES
From Monday, regional Victorian businesses will be asked to check the addresses of clientele when taking bookings for cafes and accommodation, in order to ensure people do not have a Melbourne address.
Any business that does not comply and has been found to have allowed a Melbourne visitor to be seated at a restaurant can face fines of up to almost $10,000.
Businesses will be asked to request to see a drivers licence; if patrons are from Melbourne, they will only be able to get takeaway food.
Mr Andrews also warned there had been cases of people travelling to regional Victoria illegally.
He said several $5000 fines had already been issued and urged people to not take the chance and risk spreading the virus.
The Victorian State of Emergency will also be extended again until November 8.
Meanwhile, 13 unlucky partygoers were dealt hefty fines after police busted them gathered at a Southbank apartment overnight.
Officers were called to the illegal party at the Clarendon St apartment about 12.10am and whacked each reveller with a $4952 fine for breaching stay at home orders.
The expensive party will cost a whopping $64,376 in total.
Among the other 114 Victorians who were fined in the past 24 hours include a serial exerciser who was slapped with a fine in St Kilda.
The man was busted exercising along the foreshore on three separate occasions and was fined for exercising for more than two hours.
BEST AND WORST OF PANDEMIC RESPONSE
The growing spread of COVID-19 from Frankston, to Chadstone and on to Kilmore is being highlighted as a blueprint for everything that can go both right and wrong in the pandemic’s next phase.
Of the 14 new coronavirus cases confirmed on Saturday, six have so far been linked to known
outbreaks where health authorities have already asked close contacts to be isolated to avoid further spread.
The most significant increase centres of a cluster at Box Hill Hospital, which has grown to 10 cases including five members of a single family. Three staff and a patient have also been infected in the hospital outbreak, forcing all staff working in the COVID ward to undergo testing.
The latest cases have also seen Melbourne’s rolling 14 average plateau at 9.5 cases, making it almost impossible for the city to meet the average of five daily cases needed to end Melbourne’s lockdown by October 18.
But as the Andrews Government evaluates easing some coronavirus restrictions next week despite the higher than expected cases, the ability to contain such outbreaks is seen as even more vital.
A sixth case has connected to a Kilmore cluster – a diner at Oddfellows cafe on October 3 – amid a strong response from the town’s community that has drawn praise from Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.
“The way to win these clusters is doing exactly what Kilmore is doing,” Prof Sutton said.
“To have over 700 people test, to have close to 300 people in quarantine as full households, contacts of contacts or quarantining until significant results come through, that is exactly how this cluster will end.
“I’m sure in a week or two‘s time we will be talking about Kilmore having no further cases.”
Health Minister Martin Foley also pointed to the response to the connected Chadstone Shopping Centre outbreak – where 2634 people have been tested including 70 per cent of staff from open retailers – as a blueprint of what is needed for the state to open safely.
However, the fact that the current outbreaks were able to begin in Frankston before September 24 and then spread 40km to Chadstone, then another 100km to Kilmore, has also provided highlighted the dangers associated with increasing community movement.
“When you have got that essential work and people being totally compliant, but also when there is noncompliance, how easily it can get away, how easily it can spread geographically,” Prof Sutton said.
“It absolutely points to the challenge.
“But we still know that the things that work can work in these cases.”
PREMIER SCRAPS PLANS TO LIFT STAGE FOUR BANS
Bans on travelling more than 5km or dining outdoors at restaurants across Melbourne will be reviewed in the coming days, however plans of lifting the full Stage Four restrictions next weekend have been scrapped.
As Melbourne’s COVID-19 cases continued to plateau on Saturday Premier Daniel Andrews was forced to concede his target for reopening the city would not be met by October 19.
Instead, Mr Andrews promised a “substantial” easing of restrictions would be announced next Sunday, though he is yet to provide businesses or frustrated Melburnians with details of the measures.
Read the full story here.
FEARS OF POSSIBLE REINFECTION AS IMMUNITY WEARS OFF
Melbourne scientists believe COVID-19 may become a recurring illness, with immunity lasting as little as a few months after a person recovers from their initial infection.
As teams around the world race to produce a vaccine against the new coronavirus, some of Melbourne’s leading researchers are launching a major study to track Victorians after they recover from COVID-19 to reveal how – and how long – they are protected from coronavirus.
Led by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, the collaboration hopes to explain whether future vaccines will need to be given only once, or whether populations will need regular doses such as annual flu shots.
Read the full story here.
VRC’S SECRET LAST-DITCH PLAN FOR MELBOURNE CUP CROWDS
Racing chiefs are making a last-ditch bid to the state government to get a limited number of fans at Flemington for next month’s Melbourne Cup Carnival.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal Victoria Racing Club bosses have made a secret submission to the government, laying out plans for how they could deliver a COVID-safe race that stops a nation with a crowd in attendance.
Racing Minister Martin Pakula said the government was “working very closely’’ with metropolitan clubs “on their aspirations for their big spring race days.”
“We’d all love to see connections and maybe some racing fans there during our Group 1 classics, but we don’t want to jeopardise our steady exit from restrictions,’’ he said.
Read the full story here.
HEFTY PRICE RESTAURANTS MUST PAY FOR OUTDOOR DINING
Melbourne restaurants and cafes are expecting to spend up to $100,000 to get back to serving meals via pop-up outdoor dining pods.
With scope for lighting, shade awnings, heating, cooling, and even double-storey designs, the wall-free hubs are being considered by dozens of businesses in the CBD and inner suburbs — many now seeking approvals from local government.
Temporary building group Spacecube would ordinarily be installing marquees for the spring racing carnival’s iconic Birdcage at this time of year, but is instead planning a rapid rollout to get the city’s diners back at the table.
Read the full story here.
MORE NEWS
ANDREWS WILL AGREE TO HAND OVER PHONE RECORDS
PRESSURE BUILDS TO HAUL ANDREWS AND MIKAKOS BACK TO INQUIRY