Melbourne restrictions won’t ease on Sunday as state set to miss 80 per cent single vaccinated target
Melburnians hoping for a round of golf or hit of tennis this weekend are set for disappointment, with the state to miss the 80 per cent first dose target that was due to be reached on Sunday.
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The state’s roadmap out of lockdown looks certain to miss its first key date, with not enough Victorians rolling up their sleeves to prompt the first scheduled easing of restrictions on Sunday.
Health Minister Martin Foley said on Friday while record numbers of Victorians were being vaccinated, with more than 96,000 jabs in the previous 24 hours, it would not be enough to meet the state’s roadmap requirement on Sunday.
Under the plan, released last week, a minor easing of restrictions was due to come into effect on Sunday if 80 per cent of people aged 16 and over had received their first vaccine dose.
While 76.2 per cent of Victorians have had a first dose, Mr Foley said it was unlikely the 80 per cent target would be met by Sunday.
Instead, the target would more likely be reached later next week.
Once the target is reached, Melbourne’s 10km travel limit will be increased to 15km and outdoor recreation, including golf, tennis and basketball, will be allowed, subject to caps.
Personal training will also be allowed for five vaccinated people outside.
In regional Victoria masks will be allowed to be removed for hairdressing and beauty appointments and on-site learning will resume for final year VCAL students.
“The projections are certainly within the coming week, and the more Victorians who come forward over this weekend to get vaccinated, the sooner we get there,” he said.
“We would expect certainly by mid to late next week we’ll hit that, and that’s a fantastic achievement by Victorians.”
Mr Foley said there would be no room to ease restrictions before the targets were met, and rejected suggestions the government and health authorities had over-estimated its roadmap timeline.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said he was confident close to 90 per cent of Victorians would get vaccinated and said only a small minority of those who had received the first dose wouldn’t receive a second dose.
Prof Sutton said Victorians could be assured that once Victorians hit 80 per cent first doses, the same proportion of second doses would follow.
WA DECLARES VICTORIA ‘EXTREME RISK’ ZONE
Just days after Western Australia will host Melbourne’s treasured AFL grand final, the state has decided to further tighten border restrictions with Victoria.
Premier Mark McGowan announced on Friday that WA would escalate Victoria to the Covid-19 “extreme risk” category from Wednesday.
Under this category, exemptions for approved travellers will be further restricted to federal and state officials, MPs and diplomats.
Travellers applying to enter the state under extraordinary circumstances will also be restricted. Those who are granted entry will have to show proof they have received at least one dose of Covid vaccine, if eligible, and have returned a negative PCR test in the past 72 hours.
Travellers will have to undertake hotel quarantine at a state facility at their expense, with a mandatory Covid test on days one, five and 13.
Returning Western Australians who complete 14 days quarantine in Victoria will be forced to complete another two weeks of self-quarantine at “suitable premises”.
CHO’S STERN GRAND FINAL WARNING
Chief health officer Brett Sutton has urged people not to congregate on grand final day, saying it would likely cause significant spread of Covid.
“We don’t want to see crowds down at Whitten Oval, don’t want to see crowds down at Gosch’s Paddock after the match or on Sunday, either, in celebration or commiseration,” Prof Sutton said.
“It is those close contacts that put you, your friends and your households at risk.
“Enjoy your fancy cheese boards, or whatever way you want to enjoy it at home. Put the barbecue on, but put your iPad up, have your phones on FaceTime, cry and scream and laugh and joke over the internet to connect with friends and family, and enjoy the spirit of the day in full.
It comes as Victoria has recorded 733 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours.
Sadly, a woman in her 80s also died from the virus.
There were 41,029 vaccines administered and 56,520 test results received.
More than 75.4 per cent of Victorians are now single dosed and 46.2 per cent have had both coronavirus vaccinations.
There are now 297 Victorians are in hospital with coronavirus, 66 are in intensive care and 46 are being ventilated.
The state now has 7160 active cases.
WHERE TODAY’S CASES EMERGED
• 427 cases in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, with 243 in Hume, 71 in Craigieburn, 58 in Roxburgh Park and 20 in Meadow Heights
• 237 cases in Melbourne’s western suburbs centred around Altona North, Tarneit and Point Cook
• 75 new cases in Melbourne’s southeast, with cases reported in Cranbourne East and Dandenong
• 27 in Melbourne’s east around Doncaster East
• 27 new cases in regional Victoria, with one in Ballarat, one in Baw Baw, three in Campaspe, five in Geelong, one in Shepparton, one in Macedon, nine in Mitchell, two in Moorabool, one in Wangaratta and two in Wodonga
FOLEY SLAMS ANTI-VAX RALLIES
Health Minister Martin Foley says protesting against Covid “does not work”, after a demonstrator was this week hospitalised with Covid-19.
The man attended the protest on Wednesday, where hundreds of people congregated in the city without masks.
“To pretend that something doesn’t exist and then for that very thing to put you in hospital is a message loud and clear, that protesting against Covid-19 is futile,” Mr Foley said.
“Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is the only thing that we would encourage people to do, as opposed to protesting.”
NEW PUSH TO GET MODERNA JAB
The Victorian government will be pushing people to get the Moderna vaccine, given dwindling supplies of Pfizer jabs.
Health Minister Martin Foley said pop-ups sites would pivot to Moderna shots.
“We want to ensure that that really strong drive of Victorians to get vaccinated in their communities in safe and accessible locations does not lose momentum,” he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the state was stockpiling Pfizer doses as a result of low supply, forecast for the second half of October.
The Premier on Thursday pointed the finger at the Commonwealth, after declaring the state did not have the stock in the freezer to shorten the Pfizer dose interval from six to three weeks.
But Mr Hunt accused him of seeking a distraction on a “difficult day”, adding Victoria’s request for an additional 32,000 Moderna doses had been granted.
Victoria’s portion of mRNA vaccines will also rise from 1.7 million in September to three million next month.
State-run hubs will receive 167,910 Pfizer doses next week, increasing to 234,540 in the week commencing October 11, with allocations for the remainder of October to be confirmed in the next 48 hours.
But Mr Andrews said: “I have to ration Pfizer because I don’t have enough”.
“Nowhere near enough of Pfizer to be able to change the dose interval,” he said. “If you want to talk about supply, have a chat to Minister Hunt … they’re the ones who do the ordering, pay for it, ship it in.”
Mr Hunt said the state government had “a pattern” of creating a distraction on “some of the difficult days”. He said an overwhelming portion of the three million mRNA vaccines allocated to Victoria next month were Pfizer.
GP clinics continue to administer second dose Pfizer shots after three weeks, with medical advice recommending an interval of up to six weeks.
However, leading epidemiologists have backed calls to reduce interval periods at state clinics. Professor Nancy Baxter, an epidemiologist and head of Melbourne University’s School of Population and Global Health, said it was “crazy” GPs could give Pfizer at three-week gaps while the state hubs had a six-week interval.
“To me it is bananas that you have different programs where there’s no consistency,” she said.
Victoria, NSW and the ACT have all raised concerns in the past week about Pfizer supply issues in October.
Asked if those concerns were valid, Mr Hunt said “no”, adding Australia was expecting its full supply.
Mr Hunt this week revealed UK Pfizer doses secured under a swap deal were brought forward to October to manage flight arrivals. Another flight containing vaccines from Europe was also rescheduled due to a volcano in the Canary Islands.
The Saturday Herald Sun this month revealed Victoria needed an extra 318,000 Pfizer doses each week to meet key vaccine targets.
It was understood a doubling of Pfizer deliveries to Australia this month would provide enough doses to allow the cut in jab gaps.
A supercharged program would allow the state to hit the 80 per cent fully-vaccinated mark ahead of schedule.
Mr Andrews said Victoria was currently “pushing as much AstraZeneca as we can” while pharmacists became equipped with Moderna.
VICTORIA HIT HARD BY JOB LOSSES
Victoria accounted for more than half of the nation’s job losses following the initial extension of the state’s sixth lockdown, new employment data shows.
Payroll jobs in Victoria shrank 2.8 per cent in the fortnight to August 28, numbers released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday show.
The decline in Victorian employees registered with the tax office was more than double the national average of 1.3 per cent over the same period.
The state accounted for 54.4 per cent of total job losses experienced across the nation during the fortnight to August 28.
Victoria has experienced a 3.2 per cent decline since the start of August, again well above of the national average of 1.7 per cent and a 2.6 per cent drop in NSW.
Victoria entered its sixth lockdown – initially scheduled to be seven days – on August 5.
It was extended less than a week later and remains in place.
The payroll data only shows a snapshot of the state’s employment as it fails to capture many sole traders or small business owners.
AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said the latest jobs update had begun to reveal the impact of lockdowns across the eastern states.
“We expect employment to fall another 150,000 in September before starting to recover in the December quarter,” he said.
CreditorWatch chief economist Harley Dale said previous lockdowns had shown business could bounce back quickly.
“The positive news is that once lockdown restrictions are eased there will be a great deal of pent-up demand unleashed, to the benefit of businesses who have grappled their way through,” he said.
TRAVEL PASS FOR FULLY VACCINATED
Thousands of Victorians stranded in extreme-risk areas, such as Sydney, will be finally allowed to return home for the first time in months.
Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday announced that fully vaccinated people stuck in Covid-hit areas could return to Victoria from September 30.
But the state opposition said it “wasn’t fair” for vaccination to be a term of entry to Victoria for people attempting to come home.
Returnees will be required to complete 14 days of home quarantine, and to test negative 72 hours before their departure and re-test at the start and end of their isolation stint.
The current extreme-risk zone rules will remain in place for the unvaccinated, however applications for exemptions can still be made.
“Given our increasingly high vaccination rates and the direction we’re headed in the road map, this is a safe and appropriate decision. This is proportionate and the right thing to do,” Mr Andrews said.
“We don’t want to have people locked out of their staff and we don’t want people locked in their homes.”
NSW has been deemed an extreme risk zone since July.
The news has been welcomed by Victorian woman Isabella Tipper, 22 – who has lived in greater Sydney with her boyfriend for the past year.
Ms Tipper said she was “thrilled” to be given a chance to return home again.
“It’s been really tough being caught up in border closures and Covid outbreaks,” she said.
“Trying to work out when I can actually come home to see my family again after so long has been exhausting. I can’t wait to get back to see them.”
Ms Tipper, who will be fully vaccinated early next month, said she would book a flight home straight after her second dose.
“It’s very exciting,” she said.
Authorised officers will carry out at-home spot compliance checks to ensure participants remained at home in line with quarantine obligations.
But geolocation technology will not be used to track compliance.
“Home quarantine is serious. It’s not a matter of when you feel like it. It’s proper,” Mr Andrews said.
Vaccinated permit holders returning to Victoria must carry proof of their vaccination status so it can be checked at airports, borders and seaports.
Mr Andrews warned that anyone found to provide false or misleading information faced hefty fines.
But opposition leader Matthew Guy said every Victorian — vaccinated or not — should be able to return home.
Mr Guy said it was not fair to make vaccines mandatory for people wanting to return home.
“This is their home,” he said. “We’re not talking about people holidaying here. This is where they live, and the fact they’ve been locked out of their own state for months is, itself, astounding.
“Bring them home, make them quarantine as they should, and encourage them to get vaccinated. That’s the sensible thing to do.”
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