Acting Premier James Merlino denies Brett Sutton’s absence intentional

Growing rumours on the chief health officer’s whereabouts have been addressed amid Australia’s sluggish vaccine rollout.

The acting Premier has finally addressed growing speculation about the whereabouts of chief health officer Brett Sutton.

Acting Premier James Merlino on Monday said Professor Sutton was still working tirelessly behind the scenes, despite not having fronted the media in days.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of people working day and night on this issue, whether it’s Professor Brett Sutton or Professor Allen Cheng,” Mr Merlino said.

“The Minister for Health (Martin Foley) was out with (testing commander) Jeroen (Weimar) and (infectious diseases expert) Ben (Cowie) yesterday.

“We’ve got a whole team of experts within our public health system ... within the CQV program ... We’ve got a whole team of people working day and night.

Merlino says he was “not aware” of rumours Sutton had been sidelined. Picture : NCA NewsWire

“And sometimes that means for media events for an announcement (or) for discussions at national cabinet ... it requires the expertise and the answering of questions in a public forum from the commissioner of CQV, the people in charge of contract tracing, or it requires a public health team, so it just depends on the decisions that have been made at that time.”

Mr Sutton, who become a cult figure throughout the peak of the pandemic, hasn’t fronted the media in recent times, despite developments over the troubled plagued Astra Zeneca rollout.

Mr Merlino also shut down rumours that Brett Sutton has been deliberately told to stay out of the limelight by government officials.

“No, I’m not aware of that all,” he said.

The statement comes as no new local cases of COVID were recorded in Victoria overnight.

One new case was recorded in hotel quarantine on Wednesday, after four internationally acquired cases were announced on Tuesday, taking the state’s active cases to 14. There were 10,042 tests results conducted.

Statewide, 3333 vaccine doses were adminstered, taking the state’s total number to 168,250.

There have been no locally acquired COVID cases in Victoria for 53 days.

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