Victoria records biggest case spike in two months

More than 500,000 Victorians are overdue for their booster shots, prompting the state government to turbocharge its program amid a case spike.

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Capacity at state-run jab hubs will be ramped up in a desperate bid to turbocharge the vaccine booster program ahead of Christmas.

More than 750,000 Victorians are now eligible for their booster dose, which is due five months after the second dose.

Almost 500,000 Victorians are now overdue.

It comes on a day Victoria recorded 1622 new Covid cases and nine deaths.

It is the highest number of daily infections since the state posted 1612 cases on October 11.

In the lead up to Christmas, all 58 state-run vaccination clinics will offer walk-up appointments – as well as bookings – for Pfizer boosters. Moderna boosters will be available at state-run clinics from Monday.

The Victorian government run Royal Exhibition Building and Wyndham drive-through clinics will remain open for walk-up appointments.

The Royal Exhibition Building clinic will offer walk-up appointments and open from 8.30am to 3.30pm this weekend, and 8am to 8pm Monday to Thursday.

Meanwhile, booking won’t be required at the Wyndham drive-through clinic, which will be open 8.30am to 4.30pm each day.

Smaller pop-up vaccination clinics will continue throughout December.

There are more than a thousand places to get vaccinated across the state, including GPS and pharmacies.

Health Minister Martin Foley said: “Getting your booster should be at the top of your Christmas list this year to keep your friends and family safe during the holiday period and slow the spread of the virus.”

“Whether you go to your local pharmacy or GP, or one of our state sites, we urge you to make that appointment as soon as you’re eligible. It’ll protect you, your loved ones and the whole community.”

CALL TO SCRAP MASKS IN SHOPS

Opposition leader Matthew Guy has doubled down on his calls for the Victorian government to scrap masks in retail settings.

Health authorities are investigating whether seven confirmed Covid-19 cases are linked to the Peel Hotel and Sircuit Bar exposure sites.

Work is underway to determine if any of the cases are carrying the Omicron variant.

More than 850 people are thought to have attended the sites last Friday night and Saturday morning.

It comes as three new confirmed cases of the Omicron strain were identified in Victoria. The new cases are recent international arrivals, and all have been in quarantine since arrival.

There are now 13 total cases of the variant of concern across the state.

The Department of Health says there are now around 30 positive Covid-19 cases being managed as either suspected or confirmed Omicron cases.

The suspected cases are awaiting sequencing to confirm their variant type.

It comes after state officials backtracked on a major Covid restriction, keeping masks mandatory in all retail settings from Thursday.

The shock move to extend the mask rule in shops has been described as a “handbrake” on Victoria’s recovery, as NSW moves to ease major Covid-19 restrictions.

Victorian shoppers will be forced to don masks ­until at least January 12 after the state government reneged on its promise to scrap the requirement in all retail settings.

It’s prompted calls from leading business figures and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy for the government to align rules with NSW, which dropped masks and QR code check-ins at thousands of ­venues on Wednesday.

Masks must still be worn in retail settings, but staff no longer have to check customers’ vaccination status. Picture: Mark Stewart

It comes as the state government begins to wind back its jab mandate as part of a host of changes introduced under new pandemic legislation, which replaced the state-of-emergency powers at midnight on Wednesday.

But masks will remain a fixture, despite Premier Daniel Andrews last month flagging that the rule would be lifted after December 15 if Covid-related hospital admissions did not soar.

The number of people in hospital with the virus has remained steady over recent weeks, but the ICU admissions rate has increased, with the vast majority of those people being unvaccinated.

When asked why the government had backtracked on its initial plan, Health Minister Martin Foley said: “One word: Omicron. (It) has changed the landscape.”

Chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton said the “highly uncertain” nature of the Omicron strain had halted plans to strip masks.

“We’ll see a significant increase in our Omicron cases,” he said.

“It’s another punch that none of us wanted, but we’ve always rolled with the punches. We have to face the reality and being in denial about it will delay and defer being able to manage cases ­appropriately.

“We need to be able to lean in and that’s why mask mandates in retail have remained. There’s still a huge role for masks, for distancing and for ventilation.”

That is despite preliminary data collected by healthcare provider Discovery Health, which is responsible for 3.7 million South African patients. It found people infected with Omicron were only a third as likely to end up in hospital compared to those with the Delta strain.

Dr Ryan Noach, chief executive of Discovery Health, said the data – based on the first three weeks of South Africa’s Omicron wave – suggested they were experiencing a less severe situation than had been first anticipated.

While it was “clearly a highly contagious variant”, Dr Noach said: “What’s encouraging at this stage is a flatter trajectory of hospital admissions, indicating a likely lower severity of the illness.”

As part of the Victorian government’s new pandemic laws, under-18s won’t need to prove they are vaccinated to be in the community from Thursday. Previously, the edict extended to anyone over 12.

Unvaccinated people will also be welcomed back to shopping precincts ahead of the busy Christmas trade, while weddings, funerals and religious ceremonies can open to all, if they are not held at a venue subject to a mandate.

Restaurants, cafes, bars, pubs, hairdressing salons and beauty services still remain out of bounds for the unvaccinated.

There will also no longer be a requirement for Covid-exposed businesses to conduct deep cleans amid “mounting international evidence” that the likelihood of infection from touching a surface is “very low risk”.

Masks will remain mandatory in retail settings until at least January 12. Picture: David Geraghty

The new measures will remain in place until January 12, but leading business groups and the state opposition want Victoria’s restrictions to align with those in NSW.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said the Liberal Party had been calling for no mandatory masks and for the government to instead focus on improving the besieged healthcare system.

“I think we need to look at Covid and Omicron and other variants in a different way than we did in 2020,” he said.

“We can’t go back to locking down the population. We need to protect the vulnerable, we need to move on sensibly and safely, but not in a panic.”

Mr Guy on Thursday doubled down on his calls for the Victorian government to scrap masks in retail settings.

He said if New South Wales could relax its mask policy, there should be no reason for Victoria to not do the same.

“I understand people are scared, I understand that Victorians are very nervous about this strain of coronavirus but we have to learn to live with this. The government can’t keep changing the goalposts on us,” he said on Thursday.

“We were told these compulsory masks would come off. Now we’re told that they’re not. It is the right time now for the government to honour their deal with the Victorian public and follow through with the mask removals that they said they would do.

“We need to get on with our lives, and we need to get on with our lives with certainty, because that’s what the government said we’d have.

“If you can’t trust the government to stick to their word on masks, how can you trust the government to stick to their word on no more lockdowns?”

Mr Guy said he agreed with the push to get Victorians taking up booster shots, but said a return to “policies of the past” was no way to live.

“The Health Minister says it’s about one word – Omicron. I say it’s about one word – vaccinations,” he added.

“If we are double vaxxed, there has got to be an advantage in being double vaccinated. We have to have a reward for doing the right thing.

“If we don’t have certainty of policy, we can’t reinvest in our economy, we can’t recover and we can’t rebuild.”

Victorian Chamber of Commerce chief executive Paul Guerra said it was disappointing the government extended mask rules on the same day that NSW had pledged to move forward.

Mandatory mask use – other than in health settings, on public transport and in rideshare services – acted as a “significant disincentive” for people to go to work and support businesses, he said.

“Today’s announcement continues to pull the handbrake on our recovery when we should be hitting the accelerator,” Mr Guerra said.

“We would like to see the state government announce a date on which the mask mandates will be removed across these remaining settings, to give businesses certainty.”

Small Business Australia chief executive Bill Lang said traders were exhausted by the shifting goalposts.

“NSW is leading the way on this by ending most restrictions,” Mr Lang said.

“It is time for the Prime Minister to reel in the rogue state and territory leaders, such as Andrews, so we can get the nation on the same page with the same Covid settings.

“That is the only way that we can return to the quality of life and freedom that every Australian deserves.”

Oscar Yildiz, who co-founded the new Victorians Party and who will run at the next state election, said Victorians were “sick to death of the constant changing rules around Covid-19”.

“We are promised one thing and then delivered another,” he said.

“As the citizens were just beginning to think that Covid was behind them, it explodes once again into their lives.”

MERLINO SAYS ISO RULES WON’T CHANGE

On Thursday, Acting Premier James Merlino moved to reassure Victorians fearing they could be forced into quarantine for Christmas, reiterating that isolation rules remained the same for the Omicron variant.

It comes as hundreds of people who attended The Peel and Sircuit in Melbourne’s inner north were forced into isolation for seven days after attending at the same time as a person who tested positive for the variant.

This decision goes against current advice for exposure to Covid cases, which would have required attendees to just wait for a negative test result.

Tom McFeely, who owns The Peel, said the decision was “overkill” and said there was mixed messages about isolation rules.

When asked about the situation on Thursday, Mr Merlino maintained there were no changes to the current rules.

“The issue with these two sites, nightclub and pub, highly sensitive sites (and) a brand new variant,” he said.

“Public health took the prudent, sensible, common sense approach in terms of isolation requirements for those patrons.

“This is exactly the same approach as in New South Wales.”

But more broadly, in terms of our isolation requirements there’s been no change to those settings.

“Bunnings, a supermarket, it’s very different from a nightclub setting.”

Mr Merlino said Victorians with tickets to major events could also have confidence rules would be enforced as originally announced, with vaccination levels to improve further.

“People looking forward to the Boxing Day Test, the Australian Open, all of those things will happen,” he said.

“Beyond 92 per cent (vaccination), pushing 95 per cent.

“We’re going to have the vaccine rollout for five to 11 year olds next year.

“In terms of the easings that we’ve made, people can rely on that with confidence.”

OMICRON REACTION ‘NOT PROPORTIONATE’

A leading epidemiologist has declared the reaction to Omicron has not been proportionate, as almost 900 Victorians remain in isolation over the super-spreading scare from two Melbourne nightspots.

Infectious diseases expert Pet­er Collignon, a professor at the Australian National University Medical School, said it was crucial the state government collated all the data before implementing “really major implications” on the community.

“We’ve pulled the trigger way too quickly,” he told the Herald Sun. “I’m not really sure that we need to treat it any differently to Delta.”

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BUDGET DEFICIT BLOW OUT

Significant policy interventions could be needed if Victoria is to financially recover from the pandemic, the state’s independent budget watchdog has warned.

In an update to the state budget released on Friday, Treasurer Tim Pallas revealed the budget deficit had blown out by $7.9bn to $19.5bn.

Net debt is also set to climb to a record $162bn, $6bn more than previously forecast, with forecasts of a slower and weaker budget recovery.

Treasurer Tim Pallas reveals the budget deficit has blown out to $19.5bn. Picture: Daniel Pockett

An analysis of the update by the Parliamentary Budget Office, released on Thursday, found operating expenses were $13bn higher than forecast.

At the same time, net asset investment forecasts where $7.7bn higher, and revenue was up $2.3bn.

However, the analysis warned net borrowing as a share of revenue would increase, making the state budget more reliant on debt.

Debt servicing costs were also expected to continue to increase substantially, with employee expenses expected to remain above the 10-year average.

“The growing debt impact, the relatively short budget forecast horizon and vague fiscal targets, gives greater uncertainty as to the Victorian government’s expected medium-term financial position,” Parliamentary Budget Officer Anthony Close said.

“There is now a forecast trend of deterioration in fiscal sustainability indicators which is unsurprising given the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Combined with the loss in Victoria’s AAA credit rating this may indicate either a new normal in fiscal sustainability levels, or that further policy.

intervention will be required to bring the state back to pre-pandemic levels.”

The PBO, established in 2018, provides independent policy costing and advisory services to members of parliament.