16 cases, two deaths; Premier announcing second step from coronavirus restrictions
Metropolitan Melbourne will enter the city’s controversial curfew for the final time after the strict measure was scrapped under the second step from lockdown. Under the changes, 127,000 Melburnians are set to return to work, and majority of schoolchildren will hit the classroom next month.
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Melbourne’s curfew will be lifted on Monday morning as part of the city's second step from coronavirus restrictions.
Students will also return to school ahead of schedule the week beginning October 12, with all primary school pupils, special school students and VCE, VCAL students return to on-site learning.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said new modelling showed it was relatively safe for primary students to return to school.
This is partially based on new evidence suggesting children are less likely to spread the virus.
“We still need to be careful … and parents should monitor their children’s health carefully,” Prof Cheng said.
EXPLAINER: WHAT YOU CAN AND CAN’T DO UNDER STEP TWO
Statement on Melbourne moving to the Second Step towards COVID Normal: pic.twitter.com/S1ARzY9R2M
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) September 27, 2020
“We’re not relying only on models, and not just aiming for a numerical target.”
In addition, Victoria’s move to the third and last steps from lockdown will no longer be defined by dates in the calendar, with the next step now brought a week forward to October 19.
Premier Daniel Andrews said: “Instead, the ‘trigger point’ for review by our public health team will be based solely on reaching our case number targets. That means the sooner we hit those targets — the sooner we can consider our next steps.”
Are you getting married now restrictions have eased? Email news@heraldsun.com.au
Care facilities and hospital patients can now have one visitor for up to two hours a day. For patients aged younger than 18, parents or carers can visit with no time limit.
Non-urgent dental care will resume. Private inspections can resume for real estate. Apprentices and uni students in their final year of study will be able to attend onsite for learning and assessment where necessary.
And weddings with a limit of five people, including the couple and two witnesses, are now allowed in outdoor spaces, along with religious gatherings of up to five people.
Supermarkets and food distribution centres will return to full capacity, with abattoirs, seafood and meat processing plants also to increase.
Manufacturing will return with up to 90 per cent of its workforce. Sole traders doing outside gardening and landscaping can return. Retail pet grooming will also resume.
The limit of one person per household allowed to shop once a day has also been lifted.
But Mr Andrews said: “Go shopping for the things you need when you need them, it doesn’t need to be just one person any longer but — and I think common sense says this to every Victorian — it is not an invitation for an entire family group to go to the supermarket.”
Outdoor pools will open, and personal training can resume with a maximum of two people and their trainer.
Childcare centres can reopen, with the permit system lifted.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton warned Victorians “this whole strategy could fall apart” if people did not follow the new restrictions.
“Private unlawful indoor gatherings, where people are often close together, talking, laughing and ... not wearing masks — that cannot happen at this stage,” he said.
It comes as 16 new cases of coronavirus and two deaths have been recorded in Victoria overnight.
The state’s active cases have dipped below 400 for the fist time since June 30, with 399 infections currently.
Ten of Sunday’s cases are linked to outbreaks in aged-care and four are related to a complex case, while one is linked to both an aged-care outbreak and a complex case.
The latest fatalities are two men in their 70s, one linked to aged-care.
Melbourne’s 14-day average has dropped to 22.1 which is well below the 30 to 50 threshold needed to trigger a move to step two of the government’s recovery road map.
WHY THIRD STEP WAS BROUGHT FORWARD
New modelling released by the Department of Health and Human Services reveals Melbourne is ahead of projections for cutting COVID-19, placing the city on track to end lockdown by October 19.
The latest report released by DHHS shows its internal calculations placed Melbourne’s Reff number at 0.69 last week, while Doherty Institute modelling placed the Reff at 0.75.
Both are ahead of schedule and great news for Melburnians, meaning restrictions can ease a week earlier than foreshadowed.
The all important Reff number is the rate at which coronavirus is considered to be spreading, and any number below one signals the virus retreating.
However, further modelling by Melbourne’s Burnett Institute shows easing restrictions immediately would come with potentially dire consequences.
The Burnett Institute modelling reveals an opening of bars, clubs, workplaces and public gatherings on Sunday would come with a 41 per cent chance of a third coronavirus wave sweeping through Melbourne within four weeks.
“Reopening too soon risks wasting all the sacrifices Victorians have made over the last few months,” the modelling report released by DHHS says.
Read the full story here.
5KM RESTRICTION BUBBLE CONTINUES
Melburnians will have to wait at least three weeks until they can see loved ones outside the five-kilometre zone, with the Premier confirming the radius limit still applies under the new rules.
Public outdoor gatherings of five people from no more than two households will need to be within 5km of all participants’ homes.
These outdoor gatherings cannot be in people’s yards and must be in a public place such as a park.
Mr Andrews said he hoped to move to a bubble arrangement in three weeks and remove the 5km rule, but made no guarantees.
“I’m sorry we can’t go even further now ... (but) keeping people local ... absolutely limits the spread of the virus,” he said. “It’s not safe to remove it today.”
In a positive move, outdoor activities including hiking and fishing are now allowed within 5km of home, and permitted workers will be able to exercise within 5km of their workplace.
But sports facilities such as tennis, golf and bowls clubs, will remain closed for now.
“Say OK, you have can play but you can’t play more than 5km away from home — we will end up with a large amount of people compressed into a small amount of public golf courses that don’t have the staff and ability to be able to manage that,” Mr Andrews said.
You create an opportunity or create a further opportunity for a large crowd together and that just doesn’t make sense.
“The two-hour limit will of course apply anyway so I think it is much better, rather than giving some very small but quite complex and potentially dangerous things today.
“We wait for three weeks and then we can go back to something that is very close to normal when it comes to those activities.”
RULE CHANGE TO FACE COVERINGS
Victorians will now be required to wear a fitted face mask, which means they will no longer be able to wear coverings like scarfs, bandannas or face shields.
Mr Andrews said there was new evidence that face shields were not as effective at infection control.
“Face shields don’t meet the test of covering your nose and mouth,” he said.
“You can wear one if you want, in terms of your eyes, but it would need to be accompanied by a mask and we would recommend a two-ply mask, but anything is better than nothing, but a shield is akin to not wearing a face covering.
“There’s a two-week lag there. We give people the opportunity to transition.”
A new fine was also announced, with illegal gatherings to be stung nearly $5000 per person.
“If you’re having a party at your house, that’s not lawful,” the Premier said.
“If a call is made to the police assistance line — and there’s been many of them — or police are on a routine patrol and they see lots of cars outside your house ... there’ll be no warnings, there’ll be no $1600 fine, there’ll be an almost $5000 fine.”
Meanwhile, man who stepped out without a mask because it was “too heavy” is among the latest batch of Victorians to be fined for breaking coronavirus rules.
Victoria Police issued 152 fines in the past 24 hours, including 55 for breaking curfew, 20 at vehicle checkpoints and 17 for not wearing a face covering.
One rule-breaker, who was spotted walking around Stonnington without a mask, told police that he had 40 masks in his car but wasn’t carrying one because it was too heavy.
Meanwhile, a woman was fined at a fast food outlet in Horsham with no valid reason for being outside her restricted area.
PM CALLS FOR MORE RESTRICTIONS TO LIFT
Scott Morrison has welcomed the easing of restrictions in Victoria but said more needed to be done, pointing to NSW as an example of a state that has remained open while dealing with cases.
In a joint statement with Josh Frydenberg and Health Minister Greg Hunt, the Prime Minister said the dumping of the curfew was an important step on the road back to normality.
“Easing restrictions in Victoria in a COVID-safe way is vitally important so that more Victorians can get back to work and resume their normal lives,” the joint statement read.
“Today’s announcement is a small but further important step in that direction. The removal of the curfew, the ability of sole traders to operate garden maintenance and related services and the improvements in supermarket capacity and manufacturing are all welcome.
“It will be important that more be done in the weeks ahead to safely ease more restrictions.
“We note that at similar case levels NSW was fundamentally open while remaining COVID-safe due to a world class contact tracing facility.”
The senior Morrison government figures said they were concerned for the mental health of Victorians as a result of the prolonged lockdown and encouraged the Premier to review the roadmap triggers.
“As many epidemiologists have encouraged, we would support Victoria in reviewing the trigger of five and zero cases with regards to the third and last steps,”
“As it stands this lockdown is already longer than that faced by residents in many cities around the world.
“We remain deeply concerned about the mental health impacts of a prolonged lock down on Melbourne residents.”
Mr Frydenberg pointed to more than $27 billion in economic support provided by the federal government to Victorians during the pandemic.
“The government will continue to support Victorians during these challenging times,” Mr Frydenberg said.
MIKAKOS STEPS OUT AFTER RESIGNATION
Jenny Mikakos has stepped out in public for the first time since announcing her resignation on Saturday morning.
The former health minister left her Thornbury home at 1.30pm after a car arrived to pick her up.
Ms Mikakos, who was carrying her government pass as she walked to the car, refused to comment when questioned.
When asked if she felt as though she had been thrown under the bus by Premier Daniel Andrews, Ms Mikakos responded: “I made a statement yesterday, I have nothing else to say.”
The Premier addressed her resignation over the hotel quarantine scandal, admitting it “was a long night”.
“I’m sorry for her and I’m saddened by this,” he said. “I don’t know many people who could say they worked harder than for her.”
“I wish her well and acknowledge her hard work.”
He said he had not spoken to Ms Mikakos since she sent him a text message to inform him she had already resigned, but disputed that their relationship was “over”.
The Premier said her departure had not impacted any of the decisions announced on Sunday.
“Our team is a big and strong team,” he said. “Decisions are not made by one person.”
COVID’S NEW THREAT TO CHRISTMAS FAVOURITE
As concerns grow on whether state borders will open by December, Australians have been warned that another important aspect to Christmas dinner could be in serious jeopardy thanks to COVID-19 restrictions.
The festive season could taste very different this year, with meat producers warning coronavirus restrictions will cause a shortage of festive favourites.
The national body representing butchers and producers said some Victorians would not be able to find hams, roasts and sausages if state government measures are not altered.
Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson is calling on Daniel Andrews to rethink the “lazy” blanket restrictions.
Under the current restrictions, meat processing facilities have been operating with at least a 30 per cent reduction of their usual workforce.
Read the full story here.
HUGE TOLL OF LOCKDOWN ON TOURISM INDUSTRY
Victoria is losing a staggering $1.44bn a month from domestic tourism because of COVID restrictions preventing Melburnians travelling.
Another $984m a month in international tourism expenditure is being lost because of border closures, new data from one of Australia’s peak tourism and transport bodies reveals.
The Tourism and Transport Forum figures for September lay bare the havoc COVID lockdowns and border closures have wrought on the Victorian tourism and travel sectors.
As well as the $1.44bn a month hit to domestic, overnight tourism, nearly 165,000 tourism jobs have been lost, creating a $6.6bn wages hole in the Victorian economy.
Victoria tourism businesses had experienced a “triple whammy” of bush fires and two COVID closures TFF chief Margy Osmond said.
“The challenge in Victoria is going to be rebuilding (tourism) content because so many businesses will have failed, despite JobKeeper,” she said.
“Where the other states have at least had the benefit of a reasonable amount of travel within their own state Victoria has been denied that as well for quite a period of time.”
As such, Victoria was entitled to “a substantial allocation” of the $50m the TFF was demanding from the federal government to roll out a national COVID-safe domestic travel campaign and other industry fightback measures, Ms Osmond said.
The reputation of Victoria as a premier tourist destination had been badly damaged by the summer fires, she said. “It then got global attention because Australia was doing so well (managing COVID) and, suddenly, Victoria wasn’t.”
Ms Osmond said the domestic travel campaign would be delivered as borders opened and funded as part of a $1bn tourism COVID-19 relief and recovery fund.
In its federal budget submission, the TFF was also calling for a $10bn commitment to extend JobKeeper from March 2021 to at least September 2021 for tourism industries.
Economic modelling for the TTF said 300,000 more tourism jobs could be lost nationally when JobKeeper expires in March, Ms Osmond said.
Nationally, the tourism sector was losing about $8bn a month in visitor spending.
HOPE FOR 2020 AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND BUBBLE
Aussies could be jetting to New Zealand before the end of the year if case numbers in both countries remain low.
Federal tourism minister Simon Birmingham said a deal with the Kiwis would hopefully be the first in a series of travel bubbles Australia could enter into around the region.
“That would just be a great step and it would prove the work that is being done to make sure this can be done, again, in a safe way,” Senator Birmingham said.
One of the key considerations ahead of reopening international borders in any way would be planning safe movement corridors through airports to ensure travellers were not exposed to Australians returning from elsewhere.
“We’re making sure we have all the work done, all the preparations there so that we can safely achieve that bubble with New Zealand,” Senator Birmingham said.
“It’s up to them as to whether they choose to open up to Australia, but we’re certainly making sure that we’re prepared.
“I’m hopeful that could be this year and then maybe set a model for us to look at for any other countries that meet similar high standards.”
CLINICAL TRIAL BOOM FOR VICTORIA’S BIOTECH FIRMS
Victoria’s biotech industry has been flooded with work from overseas firms seeking clinical trials.
Foreign players are attracted to the low coronavirus infection numbers here, despite Melbourne’s recent spike.
Angela Luttick, executive vice-president at laboratory business 360 biolabs, said it was a “no-brainer” for overseas clients to do clinical trials here.
“A lot of them want to rescue their trials from other parts of the world where it can’t be conducted because the (COVID) positivity rate is so high,” she said.
“We are known as a great place for clinical trials because we offer a really fast regulatory scheme, as well as our R&D tax incentives.”
Based at the Burnet Institute in Commercial Road, 360 biolabs is among the Victorian firms who have taken part in “virtual” trade missions delivered by state agency Global Victoria.
Three missions — to Korea, the US and the UK — have been held since the pandemic started, with up to 50 more planned over the next two years.
They will focus on food, fibre, education, health and biotechnology, liveability and wellness.
The virtual missions are part of a $15.7m export recovery package that includes $7.6m in vouchers that up to 150 firms can use to access tailored professional services to support their export plans.
State exports have been hit hard by the pandemic, especially the foreign student industry, which was worth $12.5bn in 2018-19.
— With Tamsin Rose and John Masanauskas
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