Two jabs key to unlocking Victorian events
Fully vaccinated Victorians will be able to attend outdoor music and sporting events, pubs and restaurants within weeks under a vaccine passport trial.
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Victorians could be given an early escape from lockdown.
Almost one million new doses of Pfizer and a plan to start vaccine passport trials allowing fully vaccinated people to attend events outdoors may deliver a spring break.
In a welcome relief from the state’s crippling lockdown, Premier Daniel Andrews said discussions with industry figures on the trials were “well and truly advanced”.
The Saturday Herald Sun has been told Victorians could be attending outdoor music and sporting events, pubs and restaurants within weeks under the trials.
Industry leaders have backed the pilot programs, revealing the digital passports would cement the state’s path out of the pandemic and could lead to significant crowds at the spring racing carnival.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said he believed such events could safely operate once 70 per cent of the state’s population had received one dose, which would be later this month.
“There’s still a chance to hold significant crowds at spring carnival. This is a race, so let’s use our race to signal that Victoria is open again,” he said.
The digital passport system, which Mr Guerra indicated could be linked to the Service Victoria app and the federal government’s vaccination certificate, has been touted as the genuine “path forward”.
“It would be as simple as you get a green tick when you check in and you get a green tick if you’ve been vaccinated,” he said.
“The person checking it at the venue only has to see two green ticks and you’re allowed in. You only need to look overseas to see that these passports are likely to be an integral part of opening up.”
Premier Daniel Andrews on Friday said the trials would provide an opportunity to ensure technology, processes and systems worked.
“They’ll happen very soon, and the discussions are well and truly advanced,” he said.
Australian Hotels Association Victorian branch chief executive Paddy O’Sullivan said the plans were promising.
“We will support anything that will open the doors of a pub or hotel,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“Regional pubs and hotels are fighting to survive. We look for any opportunity to re-open and are willing to discuss models for vaccination-only staff and customers.”
It comes as Mr Andrews warned he would enforce a strict “lockout” for those refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 once double-dose thresholds had been reached. “What will become a bigger part of our response is a lockout of many venues for those who are not vaccinated,” he said.
“If you’re vaccinated, you are going to be able to participate in the economy, you’re going to be able to go to a pub, the cinema, to a sporting event, you’re going to be able to do all sorts of things.
“Far from being locked into your house, you will have freedoms that an unvaccinated person is not going to be able to do. They will be locked out of a whole range of venues because they could be vaccinated, and they’ve chosen not to.
“I am not going to lock down the whole state to protect people who wouldn’t protect themselves.”
Mr Andrews also hinted that more restrictions could be scrapped from September 23, once 70 per cent of first doses had been carried out.
“We are on track to beat that target and get there a bit earlier than planned so that is fantastic news,” he said.
Victoria recorded 208 new locally acquired cases and one death on Friday.
A man in his 60s from Altona North became the third fatality in a number of days. It’s not yet known if he had underlying health conditions or whether he was vaccinated.
Of the new cases, 96 were linked to known outbreaks, with contact tracers scrambling to find the sources of 112 mystery cases.
Two of the cases were detected in Shepparton, while 128 were centred in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, 48 in the western suburbs and 13 in the east.
Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said he had become concerned about the way Covid-safe plans were being used in some workplaces.
This came after 20 cases were linked to a large construction site outbreak in Box Hill, while four cases were detected in a western suburbs distribution centre.
The state government flagged that home quarantining trials were in the works, and school ventilation system assessments were being done to make classrooms safer.
New geolocation technology – that would monitor home quarantining compliance – has also been said to be a realistic opportunity to bring home Victorians stranded in NSW.
PFIZER BOOST TO SPEED UP ROLLOUT
Victoria is set to reach its 70 per cent vaccination target ahead of time after the federal government secured almost one million extra Pfizer doses for the state.
Thousands more Pfizer appointments will open up within days, giving the state an earlier exit from its harsh lockdown.
The state has been aiming to reach 70 per cent of the eligible population given one dose by September 23.
But the extra Pfizer doses could bring that forward by up to a fortnight at the current rate of vaccination.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced last week that the 5km travel ban would be eased to 10km and outdoor exercise increased from two to three hours a day when 70 per cent of the population have had one dose.
On Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia had inked a swap deal with the UK in which four million doses would be rushed Down Under. The vaccine will begin arriving in Australia on Sunday, with almost a million doses earmarked for Victoria.
Mr Morrison said the deal gave Australians four million reasons to be hopeful.
“The plane’s on the tarmac now – it will be leaving tomorrow, and those doses will be coming over the course of the next few weeks, which will see us double the Pfizer doses that we have during September,” he said.
The extra doses are in addition to the 131,000 extra doses coming to the state from the swap deal with Singapore.
Under the deals, Australia will receive 4.5 million extra doses immediately in return for doses due to arrive here later in the year which will not then be needed.
In the past week, 507,000 people in Victoria have been vaccinated, meaning the extra doses have the capacity to bring forward the state’s target of 70 per cent for full vaccination.
The national cabinet meeting on Friday was described by government sources as “very constructive” in comparison to last week’s more acrimonious meeting.
Most of the discussion focused on the Doherty Institute modelling, which is examining the likely impact on the nation’s health systems when the country abandons the current hard suppression strategy.
The government believes the modelling is likely to be released next week.
It was also reported that Australia’s first shipment of Moderna vaccines had been pushed out by two weeks.
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