12 new cases, two deaths; Casey cluster grows as Melbourne’s 14-day virus average falls
While the number of active cases in Victoria has continued to drop, a shocking number of cases are still being recorded in aged care settings and healthcare workers. It comes as Melbourne’s 14-day average dipped well below the target to move to step two of the roadmap out of lockdown.
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Victoria has recorded 12 new cases of coronavirus overnight, along with two deaths.
Eight of the new cases are linked to known outbreaks.
There have been 20,105 coronavirus cases recorded in Victoria since the pandemic began and 773 deaths.
The two deaths overnight are linked to aged care.
Of the 12 new cases, there are two cases in both Brimbank and Moonee Valley; and single cases in Casey, Hume, Melton, Monash and Wyndham. Three cases are subject to further investigation.
The Casey cluster has now reached a total of 44 cases, with 18 still active.
Five of the state's new cases are linked to aged care.
More than 13,000 Victorians were tested for coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
There are 67 Victorians fighting the virus in hospital, including eight in intensive care and six on a ventilator.
The number of active cases in the state has dropped to 532, with 274 in aged care, 83 are healthcare workers and 10 in regional Victoria.
Metropolitan Melbourne’s 14-day rolling average has been driven down to 26.7.
It’s a further drop from Wednesday’s average of 29.4.
The tally, now firmly below 30, has exceeded the state’s 30 to 50 case range required to move to the second step on the government’s COVID-19 road map recovery plan from September 28.
That step will allow childcare to reopen, schools to begin a staged return to classrooms and outdoor gatherings of up to five people from two households.
The low figure also points towards a possible easing of lockdown restrictions before the scheduled date in late October.
‘SAFE STEPS’ WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON SUNDAY
Melburnians have been told not to get their hopes up for Sunday’s announcement after the Permier hosed down expectations there will be big changes to the roadmap out of lockdown.
Daniel Andrews hinted earlier this week more restrictions would be lifted than those detailed in step two for metropolitan Melbourne, but on Thursday he said Sunday would not be a day of massive steps.
“The strategy is working, we are well on track on Sunday to make some further announcements,” he said.
“ … It is not a day when we essentially throw the doors open. It will be, however, steady and safe steps.”
Additional changes to both personal freedoms and businesses are being considered ahead of the announcement.
“But it is very clear that the roadmap as we announced a few weeks ago contemplates a much bigger step at the end of October and it’s never been the case that we felt that it’s likely that we could take those sorts of steps essentially a month early,” Mr Andrews said.
“I just wanted to be very clear with people that their expectations should be of small, safe and steady steps as part of Sunday.
“But the strategy’s working and people can be confident that the trend is with us and we’ll have under constant review what was scheduled in October and the timing of that.”
The Premier acknowledged Melbourne was ahead of the roadmap schedule, but said the key point was how meaningful it was and whether it holds.
“The challenge in a point in time measurement is obviously the days and weeks that come after it are even more important than the position that you’ve arrived at,” he said.
Mr Andrews said the numbers were coming down and 12 cases overnight was another very good day.
“Today should be a day where Victorians are positive to have a another day of lower case numbers. The trend is with us, the strategy is working,” he said.
NEW HIGH-RISK VIRUS LOCATIONS
A number of new high-risk coronavirus locations have been identified across Melbourne.
Anyone who attended the following sites should watch for coronavirus symptoms and get tested immediately if symptoms occur;
CARRUM FORESHORE SLSC on September 18
SARAWAN SPICES, 335 Clayton Rd, Clayton on September 19
COLES CLAYTON, Centre Rd &, Cooke St, Clayton on September 19
CLAYTON SUPA Wash Coin Laundrette, 1298 Centre Rd, Clayton on September 20
WOOLWORTHS Hoppers Crossing. Morris Road and Old Geelong Road, Hoppers Crossing on September 19
MCDONALDS (store inside the airport), Terminal 2, Melbourne Airport, between September 20 and 21
COLES TARNEIT West, Tarneit Rd, Tarneit on September 20
BORDER WITH REGIONAL VIC WILL CHANGE WHEN SAFE
The border between regional Victoria and Melbourne will remain until it is safe to end the ring of steel.
Mr Andrews said the border would remain for as long as Melbourned posed a risk to the regions virus fight, but not a day longer than necessary.
“ … We are not about to do anything that might risk the fact that regional Victoria’s in a much better and a much different place in terms of this virus than a metro area,” he said.
“The metro numbers are coming down as well. They are not as low, but they are coming down and will get to the point where we will be able to say right, we can treat the state as one and people can travel.”
FRYDENBERG CALLS FOR MELBOURNE TO REOPEN
Josh Frydenberg has again urged Daniel Andrews to speed up Melbourne’s exit from the stage four lockdown.
The Treasurer said it was a “tragedy” that kids had lost almost a year of face to face learning and small businesses needed to safety open their doors as soon as possible to save jobs.
“It’s a tragedy that kids have lost nearly a year of their schooling,” Mr Frydeberg said.
“To be out of the classroom as a result of COVID and these very strict restrictions has been very difficult.
“Losing that ability to engage with your friends on a daily basis and to learn directly with the teacher as opposed to online in a computer is tough, is really tough.
“The quicker we can get kids back to school, the better the kids will be and I think the better our community will be.
“We need to open those doors to small business in a COVID safe way. which can allow them to continue to do business and continue to employ their staff.”
Mr Frydenberg said the harsh lockdown measures had served their purpose in driving cases down and now the Premier needed to turn his attention to reopening.
“We have as a government provided feedback to Daniel Andrews as to how he can speed up that roadmap,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“It’s pleasing to see the numbers come down in a consistent fashion. But that’s obviously a product of these very stringent restrictions and strict restrictions that are in place.
“The people of Victoria want to get back to work, the students of Victoria want to get back to school and the Premier can help facilitate that.”
- Tamsin Rose
BACKBENCHERS TO BLOCK CONTROVERSIAL BILL
It comes as Victoria’s upper house looks set to block a controversial bill that would grant extraordinary powers to detain potential COVID-19 spreaders.
A survey of Victorian crossbenchers revealed not one supports the bill in its current form.
Chief among their concerns are the unprecedented powers the bill would give to police officers, PSOs and other authorised officers to detain people they deem a COVID risk.
Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said he would not support the “offensive” bill, so the government needs to secure the votes of at least four crossbenchers.
“The government could appoint literally anyone off the street, give them powers to enter your house, to search your house, to detain you, not because you’ve committed a crime but because they think you might,” Mr O’Brien said.
“That is the sort of thing you see in a communist state.”
The government was on Wednesday negotiating with key crossbenchers, with Premier Daniel Andrews confident the bill would be passed.
Prominent Victorian lawyers have rallied against the bill, lobbying MPs to block it in the upper house.
Key crossbenchers including Reason Party leader Fiona Patten have indicated they will push for amendments.
Half of the 12 crossbench MPs indicated to the Herald Sun they would oppose the bill in its current form. The others were undecided.
“I’m not a civil libertarian but I understand it gets to a point where we start to head down a road where we don’t want to go,” Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MP Jeff Bourman said.
A Liberal Democrats spokesman said the position of members Tim Quilty and David Limbrick was clear: “No, no way, you’ve got to be kidding, nope.”
Former Labor MP Adem Somyurek said he was exploring his options.
As well as the controversial detention measures, the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2020 extends a range of temporary changes made by the previous omnibus bill, introduced in April.
However those measures, many of which allow the ongoing operation of essential public services during the pandemic, could expire if the bill is not passed.
They include the use of audiovisual technologies for the running of the courts and local government as well as support payments for people with long-term workplace injuries.
“There are some things there that couldn’t be allowed to run out or there would be significant consequences,” Mr Andrews said.
“I would hope that through good-faith discussions, a majority of legislative councillors would come to the same view.”
Mr O’Brien said he would support the immediate extension of the emergency provisions if they were split from the controversial measures.
But Mr Andrews said he was confident that wouldn’t be necessary.
“I think it’s perfectly possible for the Legislative Council to work through a bill line by line,” he said.
“I don’t predict outcomes in the upper house but I can predict that our negotiation and our conversations will be in good faith.”
Last month the government had to back down from plans to extend the state of emergency provisions for a year to secure upper house support.
DAN’S COVID DETENTION LAW EXPLAINED
UNION CALLS ON PREMIER TO SACK HEALTH MINISTER
A leading health union is calling on Daniel Andrews to sack his “clueless” Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, accusing her of “breathtaking incompetence”.
Ahead of the embattled health minister’s appearance at the hotel quarantine inquiry on Thursday, Health Workers Union boss Diana Asmar has begged the Premier to demand Ms Mikakos’s resignation.
“For the good of your government, for the good of health workers I represent, and for the good of all Victorians, Ms Mikakos must go,” she wrote in a letter to Mr Andrews on Wednesday.
She said that in all the union’s dealings with the health minister, “not once has she displayed even a basic understanding of her portfolio.”
Read the full story here.
MINISTERS DENY KNOWLEDGE OF SECURITY GUARD DECISION
Two government ministers have become the highest-ranking witnesses to tell the hotel quarantine inquiry they don’t know who decided to hire private security to guard quarantine hotels.
Police Minister Lisa Neville and Jobs Minister Martin Pakula — key members of the crisis council of cabinet — said on Wednesday they hadn’t made the decision and did not know who did.
Their failure to identify the decision maker ramps up pressure on Health Minister Jenny Mikakos and Premier Daniel Andrews — the last two witnesses to front the inquiry before hearings wind up on Friday.
Read the full story here.
ANALYSIS: CONGA LINE OF DENIERS TURNS HOTEL INQUIRY INTO FARCE
The hotel quarantine inquiry has been running since July 20, and has spent 21 days taking evidence from people directly involved in designing and running the program.
In all that time, not one person has admitted making the decision to shun the Australian Defence Force and instead use private security firms. A conga line of government types, from state controllers to deputy secretaries, departmental secretaries, commissioners and ministers, have insisted not only did they have nothing to do with the decision, they didn’t even express a view on it.
Taxpayer-funded lawyers have quibbled over the use of words such as preference, direction, formal and informal, to ensure the finger of blame does not end up pointing at any particular government department or individual.
Read the full analysis here.
PANDEMIC COULD CHANGE VICTORIANS’ PRESCRIPTIONS
All Victorians will soon have access to electronic prescriptions under a fast-tracking of new technology to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
After the successful introduction of electronic prescriptions across Melbourne since August, the Australian Digital Health Agency will roll out the program across the rest of the state in coming weeks. To boost the effectiveness of telehealth consultations, patients can choose to receive an electronic prescription via email or text message rather than paper from their doctor.
The text or email contains a token pharmacists can use to unlock the prescription from a secure, encrypted electronic delivery service.
Although the technology had been on the drawing board in recent years, Australian Digital Health Agency interim CEO Bettina McMahon said it was fast tracked in March after technology and health groups witnessed the impact of COVID-19.
Since then more than 34,000 electronic prescriptions have been received by Melbourne patients.
“From the first electronic prescription in May, we tested the system in over 20 locations across Australia which gave us confidence that we were ready to do this in August across the whole of Melbourne,” Ms McMahon said.
Maffra pharmacist Vin Naidu, who has been trialling the electronic prescriptions at his Live Life Well pharmacy, said younger patients had embraced the technology.
MENTAL HEALTH CASH INJECTION AMID LOCKDOWN WOES
A $21.3 million package to help providers of mental health, alcohol and drug services reopen in a safe way has been announced amid increased levels of anxiety and depression among Victorians.
Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said the funding would help keep workers in a single setting where they need to have face-to-face services, while continuing telehealth services wherever possible.
“That involves extra funding for those services to pay workers more on their hourly and sessional rates to keep people at a single service, and to minimise the transfer of employees around different service providers,” he said.
“It also extends the opening hours of services so as to make sure that the demand of people who need those face-to-face services can be spread out over a longer period of time and minimise the chances of numbers of people congregating for those services.”
The funding will also deliver a series of minor works programs, including bed-based services, community alcohol and other support services, day programs, family and specialist care programs, Aboriginal community controlled organisations and complement the increasing use of digital health services.
Mr Foley said there had been increased levels of anxiety and depression among Victorians.
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