705 new cases, one death; one in five hospital Covid patients in ICU
More than 20 per cent of Victorian Covid patients in hospital are receiving intensive care, with another worrying sign indicating the state’s health system is under pressure.
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Health authorities have revealed an alarming statistic, with more than one in five Victorian Covid patients in hospital now in intensive care.
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed 363 Victorian Covid cases were currently in hospital, an increase of 38 in the past day.
There are 75 patients in intensive care, including 56 on a ventilator.
It comes as the state announced 705 new Covid cases, along with another death, on Monday.
There are 8538 active cases across the state.
More than 29,600 Covid vaccinations were administered on Sunday.
Right now, 77.5 per cent of eligible Victorians have received a single dose of a Covid vaccine, while 47.4 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Mr Andrews said on Monday more than 80 per cent of Victoria’s latest Covid-19 cases were under the age of 50, with 23 per cent of the latest cases were aged in their 20s.
He described Victoria’s Covid outbreak as a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
“It just shows, there is every reason to get vaccinated, every reason to get an appointment and go and play your part for the community,” he said.
Meanwhile, The Royal Melbourne Hospital has been forced to shut its Covid testing clinic as rising active cases put pressure on their emergency department.
The Grattan St free clinic was a popular testing site for inner-city residents, but closed its doors on Monday.
A Royal Melbourne Hospital spokeswoman said the screening clinic was “closed permanently”.
“The closure will provide our emergency department with additional capacity to manage the
increase of Covid-positive presentations,” she said.
“The new free public-run clinic is now located at Melbourne University Testing Clinic.
“For all Victorians, we strongly encourage everyone who has the slightest symptoms to
please get tested immediately, and for those eligible to be please get vaccinated.”
Meanwhile, NSW has revealed people who are double-vaccinated will be able to have 10 visitors at home, play community sports and drink while standing at pubs once it hits its 80 per cent vaccination target.
WHERE VICTORIA’S LATEST CASES EMERGED
• 412 cases in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, including Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park, Meadow Heights and Epping
• 165 cases in Melbourne’s west, at Point Cook and Truganina
• 84 cases in Melbourne’s south across Pakenham, Dandenong and Hampton Park
• 32 cases in Melbourne’s east in Boronia and Camberwell
• 12 cases in regional Victoria in Macedon Ranges, Mitchell, Geelong, Ballarat, Baw Baw and Shepparton
VACCINE ROLLOUT GRANTS FOR GPS
Health operations across 11 Melbourne council areas with low vaccination rates will receive extra funding to turbocharge the rollout.
General practices and community pharmacies will be able to apply for between $4000 and $10,000 in state government grants.
The money is meant to help maximise the vaccine rollout.
“They can run extra hours, they can see more patients. They can have more people go through the vaccination program that they are running,” Mr Andrews said.
The grants will be available to GPs and clinics in Brimbank, Cardinia, Casey, Darebin, Greater Dandenong, Hobsons Bay, Hume, Melton, Whittlesea and Wyndham.
Victoria is on the way to reaching its vaccine targets, with just under 50 per cent of the population having received both doses.
NSW UNVEILS 80 PER CENT ROADMAP
NSW has revealed a three-stage plan towards reopening, with key dates to look forward to in October and December.
Eased coronavirus rules will be made available to those who have had two vaccine shots once 70 per cent of the state’s population hits that target, and more freedoms will become available at 80 per cent.
There will be a third reopening stage in December – and those who haven’t been vaccinated will have to wait until then to take advantage of some of the freedoms.
At 70 per cent, predicted to be October 11, pubs, retail stores and gyms are set to open again, but only for the fully vaccinated.
At 80 per cent, which could be October 18, the new activities allowed for those who have had two coronavirus jabs will include having 10 visitors at home, playing community sports, and drinking while standing at pubs.
International travel caps will also be reconsidered, meaning it’s likely more people will be able to leave and re-enter Australia.
VACCINE PASSPORT ON TRIAL
The first “no jab, no entry” rules will be introduced across parts of Victoria in three weeks’ time to pave the way for a statewide adoption of vaccination passports.
Some of Victoria’s Covid-19 minor restrictions will also ease at midnight on Tuesday after the state reaches its 80 per cent first vaccination milestone, allowing people to venture up to 15km from home, as well as enjoy sports such as golf and tennis.
Despite Victoria passing 8000 active cases for the first time on Sunday, Industry Support and Recovery Minister Martin Pakula said “vaccinated economy trials” would begin from October 11 to smooth out any issues before a wider opening up of the state.
Up to 20 trial sites in the municipalities of Buloke, Pyrenees, Bass Coast, Greater Bendigo, East Gippsland, and Warrnambool will be offered an early chance to live under the settings that will be in place when 70 per cent of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated – a target expected to be reached on October 26.
The greater freedoms offered to the trial sites will allow pubs, clubs and entertainment venues to allow 30 fully vaccinated people indoors and 100 outdoors, provided they can show electronic or hard copy vaccination passports.
“It’s about seeing how our vaccinated economy system might work, and we will trial that with higher patron numbers and crowds with everyone on site being confirmed as fully vaccinated,” Mr Pakula said.
“So in terms of the sort of settings and the industries where we think those trials may work, hospitality, hair and beauty, tourism, some types of events, so potentially race meetings, concerts, community gatherings, all of those types of events will be able to be considered for trials of the double-vax economy.”
While he was “confident” the Commonwealth government would soon find a way to protect the Medicare app from hackers and forged vaccination passports, Mr Pakula said it was vital not to delay the trial so any issues could be resolved before the 70 per cent vaccination mark was reached.
He also flagged a further trial to road test the 80 per cent freedoms could be tried in metropolitan areas, potentially allowing crowds of up to 5000 at events such as the Melbourne Cup, if the lockdown had not already ended.
Premier Daniel Andrews also announced that Victoria would reach its 80 per cent single dose vaccination target on Tuesday, allowing a modest easing of some restrictions.
Geelong’s week-long lockdown was lifted at midnight on Sunday, despite the city recording six new Covid cases.
However, the good news was tempered by another 779 cases announced on Sunday, as well as the number hospitalised growing to 325 including 73 in intensive care and 54 on ventilators. Eighty per cent of those in hospital are unvaccinated.
Deputy chief health officer Deb Friedman on Sunday also announced one person in their 70s and another in their 80s had died of Covid.
“These people had been eligible for vaccination from the first day of our vaccine rollout in Victoria however, the two individuals who passed away were not vaccinated,” she said.
PRISON SHUT DOWN BY COVID SCARE
Ravenhall Correctional Centre has been placed in lockdown after two staff members tested positive for Covid.
The movement of prisoners has been suspended while contact tracing is carried out, Corrections Victoria said in a statement.
“Corrections Victoria is working with the Department of Health to assist with contact tracing,” it read.
It brings the number of cases within Victoria’s prison system to 20, with 12 inmates and eight workers infected.
Prisoners have tested positive at the Metropolitan Remand Centre (six cases), Melbourne Assessment Prison (five cases) and the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (one case).
“All prisoners have been managed under quarantine arrangements since their arrival into custody and are being held in isolation units in accordance with established operational processes,” the statement reads.
The remaining six cases are staff members at the Metropolitan Remand Centre, where the movement of prisoners has also been suspended.
The first case was identified on September 19, with several people testing positive over the following days.
INFECTIOUS PROTESTER POSES RISK
A second protester who attended an illegal anti-lockdown rally has tested positive for Covid-19.
Health authorities say the Geelong man, aged in his 30s, was unlikely to have contracted the virus at the widely condemned demonstrations last week. But he did pose a risk to others because he attended while infectious.
“Protesters are not immune from Covid,” Covid response commander Jeroen Weimar said. “I suspect there wasn’t a QR code for the demonstration. This virus will find you out.”
Several police officers remain in isolation after coming into contact with the first Covid-infected protester, who was taken to hospital just hours after taking part in Wednesday’s unrest.
Smaller groups of anti-vaxxers on Sunday gathered for “park picnic protests” across Melbourne to protest against industry vaccination mandates.
Protesters were encouraged to link up with one another in Telegram chats, with each chat dedicated to a particular picnic.
These stretched from Anglesea around Port Phillip to Rye on the Mornington Peninsula. It was not known on Sunday if police had made arrests in relation to illegal picnics.
MORE HELP FOR STRUGGLING BUSINESSES
Desperate city businesses will get more help from a Melbourne City Council program after a $1m budget boost.
With continuous lockdowns devastating the CBD, the council’s business concierge service will be ramped up over the next few weeks to prepare for the easing of some restrictions next month.
Industry groups have criticised the state government’s recent road map which only allows limited reopening when Victoria hits 70 per cent fully vaccinated in late October.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp said thousands of businesses were accessing the concierge service in one of the most difficult trading periods in living memory.
“We know ongoing restrictions are significantly impacting our local business owners, and many are struggling to survive,” she said. “We’re hearing from operators who are scared and frustrated, and desperate to reopen.
“Our business concierge team has done a mighty job since being introduced in March last year, which is why we allocated $1m in this year’s budget to expand the important service.”
MORRISON’S WISH LIST FOR CHRISTMAS
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says his Christmas wish is for Aussies to get “their lives back”.
He is urging state and territory leaders to allow families to reunite interstate once Australia hits its 80 per cent vaccination target.
“That is within the gift of governments, and that’s a gift I’d like to see us give them,” Mr Morrison said.
“We have been very successful (at) saving lives, but we’ve also got to give people their lives back.”
He said that while tough restrictions had a “used-by date”, other measures would stay under phase C of the national reopening plan.
“There will be the QR code logins and … wearing masks, perhaps occasionally, in particular settings,” he said.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the nation was on track to beat the 80 per cent vaccination target, with NSW and ACT first dose rates above 85 per cent.
“That means that there should be no barriers to any Australian being able to travel,” Mr Hunt said.
He refused to be drawn on how long it would take to reach phase D of the plan, which does not rely on restrictions or lockdowns to minimise Covid cases.
LEADERS OPTIMISTIC ON REBUILDING
Business and community leaders have come together to plan Victoria’s post-Covid path to recovery, declaring it an opportunity to rebuild the state better than ever.
The inaugural “Victoria Summit 2021” outlined a broad vision for the state through a series of working groups, led by Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra.
The meeting, believed to be the first of its kind in Australia, aimed to plot a course to where Melbourne and Victoria would be in the coming decades, Mr Guerra said.
“If you step back and have a look, there’s still a lot of good things but there’s also an opportunity to close the gaps on emerging issues,” he said.
The working groups were led by prominent Victorians including Tim Piper of the Australian Industry Group, Swinburne vice-chancellor Pascale Quester and VCOSS chief executive Emma King.
Delegates will meet again next month in the next stage of the meeting process to work out practical ways to turn the vision into reality and ensure the state’s prosperity.
The meeting’s visions were split into three categories: business and economy; community, health and wellbeing; and future of work.
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