Melbourne’s coronavirus testing centres idle as state records 240 cases, 13 deaths
A hotel in Melbourne’s CBD has won a $10 million contract to act as a COVID-19 quarantine centre until mid-2021. It comes as Victoria recorded a sizeable drop in active coronavirus cases but more than 3700 cases are still a mystery to contact tracers.
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Thousands of Victorians have recovered from coronavirus, with the state’s active cases dropping by 2291.
There were 7155 active cases on Wednesday, but the number dropped to 4864 on Thursday.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said a lot of work had gone into clearing people and releasing them from isolation.
“What it does involve is making sure that their symptoms have cleared and enough time has lapsed since the start of their illness to allow them to be released from isolation,” he said.
Prof Cheng outlined the process saying people without symptoms for 10 days were cleared and additional testing “was not necessary”.
However, people with vulnerabilities and ongoing symptoms were tested before release.
More than a third of the state’s active cases are in aged care with 1811 cases, and healthcare workers account for another 753 cases.
Regional Victoria has 295 active cases, with 118 of those in Greater Geelong and 27 in Greater Bendigo.
240 NEW CASES, 13 DEATHS
Another 13 Victorians have died from coronavirus and the state added 240 cases to the tally on Thursday.
There are 3784 cases with unknown source in the state.
Prof Cheng warned while positive today’s case numbers showed the state was not in the clear yet.
“Most of the cases are in Metropolitan Melbourne,” he said.
“There are less new outbreaks which is encouraging.”
The number of daily cases is slightly higher than Wednesday’s 216 cases and Thursday’s 221.
Victoria has recorded a total of 17,683 cases and 376 deaths since the pandemic began.
Eight of the 13 deaths have been linked to aged care settings. The deaths include a man in his 70s, six females in their 80s, and five females and one male in their 90s.
There are 622 people in hospital, including 43 in ICU and 28 on ventilators.
Victorians are again flocking to coronavirus testing sites with 20,279 tests carried out yesterday.
The move has been welcomed by Premier Daniel Andrews who has previously warned low test rates could impact the lifting of restrictions down the track.
Mr Andrews confirmed “a lot of work” was going on when it came to transitioning out of hard lockdown but there were no new announcements to make.
“As soon as we can and as soon as we have got numbers and data that makes those sort of predictions credible,” he said.
CBD HOTEL TO BECOME QUARANTINE CENTRE UNTIL MID 2021
A CBD hotel has been awarded a $10 million contract to act as a COVID-19 quarantine centre until mid 2021.
The state government will pay Brady Hotels $9.97 million under a deal struck in June for the provision of accommodation and other associated costs for people infected with COVID-19 who cannot self-isolate at home.
The 4.5 star hotel on Little LaTrobe St was not part of the government’s bungled hotel quarantine program for returned travellers.
It was awarded a contract without tender just days before Daniel Andrews scrapped the trouble-plagued scheme after early genomic sequencing reports linked almost all of the state’s second wave on the quarantine program.
Under State of Emergency provisions, flexible procurement processes exist to enable contracts to be awarded without going to tender.
The quarantine program was allocated a budget of about $80 million to secure hotels for returned travellers.
It is not clear if this contract, which expires in June next year, falls outside that budget.
The government was approached to comment on the deal.
- Shannon Deery
BANS ON EVICTIONS, RENT RISES EXTENDED
Bans on rental evictions and rent rises will be extended in Victoria as the state continues to deal with the financial fallout of the lockdown measures.
The extensions relate to both residential and commercial properties and will now expire on December 31.
Landlords will now be able to claim up to 50 per cent in land tax rebates - up from the 25 per cent previously estimated.
It comes as new figures reveal that almost 26,000 deals for reduced rent have been negotiated in Victoria since the pandemic began.
The State Government has also provided more support with $3000 available to landlords who have lost rent, along with tax relief already being offered.
Treasurer Tim Pallas said the new changes meant “no one should have to be worried about losing a roof over their head right now”.
LATEST RULE FLOUTERS SLAPPED WITH FINES
A man taking his uncle to buy cigarettes and anti-mask rule-breakers were among the latest people to be fined for breaching COVID-19 lockdown laws.
Victoria Police issued 168 fines in the last 24 hours, including 24 for not wearing a face mask and 48 for breaking curfew.
These included:
- A man who was caught driving in a carpark in Knoxfield after curfew and stated he had driven from Mount Waverley to take his uncle to buy cigarettes and refill a gas bottle.
-A woman walking in Hobsons Bay after curfew who said she had visited a friend and didn’t think it was that serious.
- A man and a woman caught without face masks at Lysterfield Lake Park with children. They told police they had travelled from Keysborough and weren’t that concerned about the virus.
- Alanah Frost
DECLINE IN TESTING CAUSES CONCERN
Doctors and nurses supposed to be part of the front line of Victoria’s COVID-19 defence have been left idle as Melburnians turn their backs on coronavirus tests.
Testing centres throughout Melbourne’s suburbs, set up at a cost of up to $50,000 a week, are seeing as few as 20 people a day.
As Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton raised concerns about a decline in testing rates, medics working at COVID-19 testing centres have also voiced alarm.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said testing sites had been created so Victorians could access them easily, but new cases could only be identified and isolated if people got tested.
“Getting tested helps keep the people you love safe, which is why we’re making sure we have the capacity to test everyone who comes forward,” Ms Mikakos said.
“We’ve made it easier than ever to get tested with more than 180 sites available across Victoria, and we’re providing financial support if you need it while you wait for the result.”
Healthcare staff have provided details of operating costs of up to $50,000 a week for carpark-style tent testing centres, which should be vital to halting COVID-19 infections.
Medics working at one northern suburbs testing centre said they were staffed with two general practitioners, each earning $160 an hour, four registered nurses and two patient care assistants, operating from tents costing $12,000 a week to hire.
Despite the outlay and strong medical presence, they took just 20 swabs a day this week.
Prof Sutton said testing numbers had gone down.
“We don’t want people who are out there with coronavirus to be missing out in these numbers,” he said. “Every case we find is an opportunity to stop transmission through isolating those individuals.”
Mr Andrews said the 16,109 tests recorded on Wednesday was below usual levels.
“We normally average out at around 20,000,” he said.
“There are far less people moving around the community and that may mean that testing for some is not as convenient as it might otherwise have been.”
But he urged anyone with symptoms to come forward.
“With such low levels of flu, if you’ve got symptoms then there’s every chance that you’ve got this virus.
“The most important thing to do is to come forward immediately.
“We’ve got to keep these testing numbers up.
“It’s always a good thing to remind people and ask people to play that important part in our fight against this wicked enemy.
“It also means you’ve got the most complete picture of how the virus is presenting in different parts of the state at different times.”
POTENTIAL WORKSAFE BREACHES IN HOTEL QUARANTINE
WorkSafe has been urged to investigate potential breaches by the Victorian government over its handling of the trouble-plagued hotel quarantine program.
Hotels associated with the program are already under investigation by WorkSafe Victoria.
But calls are growing for investigations to focus on the state government specifically over how it set up and managed the quarantine program.
Any proven breaches of occupational health and safety laws could expose the government to tough new industrial manslaughter laws.
Ken Phillips, a small business advocate who runs non-profit group Self Employed Australia, has asked WorkSafe to investigate possible breaches of the laws.
Opposition workplace safety spokesman Nick Wakeling has also written to WorkSafe requesting a similar investigation.
Mr Phillips said an investigation should focus on the development, planning, management and implementation of the program by the Victorian government and government organisations and agencies, including their contractors and staff.
Anyone can seek a formal WorkSafe investigation, provided a prosecution isn’t already underway, within six months of a suspected breach.
It is understood Mr Phillips’ application may be too early to force any specific action by WorkSafe.
A WorkSafe Victoria spokesman said an investigation was underway into “workplaces associated with the COVID-19 hotel quarantine program”.
The government has come under fire for its handling of the program with genomic sequencing linking more than 90 per cent of Victoria’s second wave to the bungled scheme.
A government spokesman said, as an independent regulatory authority, any decisions to make inquiries or investigate workplaces, as well as any enforcement measures, were a matter for WorkSafe.
“A judicial inquiry has been established at arm’s length from government to examine issues relating to hotel quarantine,” she said.
“We will let the inquiry do its work. Our focus remains on containing this virus.”
WorkSafe has inspected 724 workplaces for coronavirus safety breaches since July 19 and issued 62 notices to employers.
Since the pandemic began, 4911 workplaces have been in and 168 notices issued.
INSIDE SURPRISE AGED-CARE INSPECTIONS
The aged-care watchdog has carried out dozens of surprise inspections at Victorian nursing homes this month in a belated effort to prevent further deadly outbreaks.
A total of 59 unannounced spot checks have been completed since August 3 to make sure personal protective equipment is used correctly and infection control protocols are up to scratch.
There are now 10 Victorian aged-care homes connected to outbreaks with more than 100 patients, and another 12 COVID-19 deaths were reported on Wednesday.
Scott Morrison said the situation had “stabilised” but remained “fragile” in a handful of facilities.
About 750 aged-care residents have been transferred to hospital, a significant increase in recent days as the state and federal governments intervened in more virus-hit facilities.
After residents were left without care at several homes when staff were stood down, the commonwealth funded a surge workforce to fill about 20,000 shifts in facilities across Melbourne.
The Victorian Aged-Care Response Centre has also teamed up with Qantas to train 10 flight attendants to become aged-care assistants. If that proves successful, up to 150 will be hired.
But Opposition aged-care spokeswoman Julie Collins said the federal government’s surge workforce had been “inadequate” and action should have been taken sooner.
More than 170 Defence Force personnel will be on the ground by the end of the week to help in aged care, including up to 100 who have the job of ensuring COVID-free nursing homes stay safe.
Specialist AUSMAT response teams have also carried out 113 visits to 62 aged-care homes.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister appeared to shift the responsibility for the federally regulated aged-care system, saying public health issues during the pandemic were “matters for Victoria”.
He said later the responsibilities of the federal and state governments had overlapped as widespread community transmission saw the virus breach dozens of aged-care homes.
“We understand what our responsibilities are and we will be responsible for those,” he said. “It is a complex set of responsibilities and they are shared, and that’s why we’re working together.”
Mr Morrison said he was “deeply distressed” by what had happened in aged-care homes.
After criticism of his government from counsel assisting the aged-care royal commission, Mr Morrison backed the commission to “give us some important insight” into reforms needed.
“People will appear before it, people will make assertions before it, people will tell stories, their own stories,” Mr Morrison said.
“And those stories will be heartbreaking. And they’ll be hard for Australians to accept and hard for prime ministers to accept as well. Both current and former,” he said.
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