The restrictions Melburnians would have been freed from
Melburnians were set to be freed from a range of restrictions, including the 25km rule and the ban on families visiting each other, but the emerging cluster in Melbourne’s north has caused Dan Andrews to call an extraordinary last minute crisis meeting.
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A growing coronavirus cluster in Melbourne’s north has rocked Premier Daniel Andrews’s plans to unveil new freedoms on Sunday.
An urgent analysis of test results this morning will now determine the timings of new freedoms.
Before the latest northern suburbs outbreak, the state government had been planning by next weekend to axe restrictions on leaving home, end the 25km travel restriction and allow two people and their children to visit another family in their home.
The long-awaited reopening of retail and hospitality outlets was also on the cards for midweek, based on the rolling 14-day average of new COVID-19 cases coming below five.
Now, a final decision on dates for the removal of restrictions has been deferred to an extraordinary meeting this morning of the government’s Crisis Council of Cabinet.
Premier Daniel Andrews had been preparing to deliver good news on Sunday, off the back of AFL Grand Final euphoria.
On Saturday he said while the state was still in a “strong” position, he did not want to order the release of shackles on families only to “see case numbers explode”.
“With so many thousands of tests that are still being processed, we need to see the results of those tests,” he said.
“We have been in some respects in this position before and we have to do everything we can to avoid that.”
The cluster in the northern suburbs has grown to 28 cases, with 15 still active.
On Saturday, another student from the East Preston Islamic College returned a positive result, as well as two parents from the school.
It has also spread to Croxton Special School, with contact tracers racing to clamp down on a potential spread by isolating hundreds of close and secondary contacts at those schools.
Head of contact tracing, Jeroen Weimar, said every person connected to the schools were being told to get tested.
He said authorities were “going far harder, far quicker” than during previous outbreaks, with systems boosted in the months since clusters spread quickly through the north and west of Melbourne.
Mr Andrews said the key was to ensure no mystery cases were identified.
“It’s the story behind the case that’s just as important as the case number,” he said.
“All those schools need to come forward and get tested, so it’s staff, students, everybody in the students’ household so mum, dad, siblings.
“For me to ignore those tests in the lab, that doesn’t make any sense, so we have to wait to see what those results are so we can get a more complete picture.”
Mr Andrews said “these numbers are still low”.
“Literally no cases in regional Victoria over the 14 day period — we are in a strong position,” he said.
Under the “third step” of the revised road map to recovery released last Sunday, changes pencilled in for November 2 included no limits on shopping, gatherings of 10 people from any number of households outdoors, and a return to some limited community sport.
Religious and wedding ceremonies would have expanded numbers, while outdoor fitness classes would also be boosted.
Mr Andrews said the 25km travel limit for Melburnians was based on protecting popular travel spots — such as the Mornington Peninsula — but also about stopping the spread of cases such as in the northern cluster.
“Those things are absolutely on the table,” he said.
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