Victoria plunged into five-day lockdown as Holiday Inn cases grow
Victoria has been plunged into lockdown again after an outbreak of the UK mutant strain as a second airport worker case was confirmed.
Victoria has been plunged into a third lockdown after a cluster of cases linked to its hotel quarantine system grew to 13 overnight, with other states slamming their borders shut.
Anyone entering New South Wales from Victoria after midnight on Friday will also be required to stay home.
Anti-lockdown protests flared in Melbourne as hundreds gathered to protest against the rules on Friday night.
It came as chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly revealed that two of the 13 cases have now been identified as “having worked in Tullamarine Airport whilst infectious”.
“Given the airport is a hub for travel to all jurisdictions within Australia, there is substantial risk of national spread of the virus,” he said.
“Due to the increased risk posed by the B117 variant of concern, the occurrence of cases in the community whilst infectious, and the risk of spread to other jurisdictions in Australia, Greater Melbourne meets the assessment of a hotspot for the provision of Commonwealth support.”
Prof Kelly will review the declaration on Monday, February 15.
Premier Daniel Andrews said Victoria’s lockdown would last five days from 11.59pm tonight until the same time on Wednesday.
Victorians will only be allowed to leave their homes for the following reasons: essential supplies, care and caregiving and exercise and essential work.
Exercise and shopping will be limited to 5km from Victorians’ homes.
Exercise is allowed for two hours a day with household members, your partner, or one other person who is not from your household.
Masks will need to be worn everywhere except in your own homes and no visitors are allowed in homes.
Public gatherings are not permitted.
Mr Andrews said that if you can work from home, then you must work from home.
Schools will close but will remain available over three days — Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday — for vulnerable children.
Child care and early childhood centres will remain open.
Places of worship are closed. Religious gatherings and ceremonies are not permitted. Funerals can involve no more than 10 people for both indoor or outdoor settings. Weddings are not permitted unless on compassionate grounds.
There will be no crowds at the Australian Open.
WHAT’S GOING TO CLOSE?
All non-essential retail must close, but supermarkets, bottle shops and pharmacies can stay open. One person in each household can go shopping per day.
Cafes and restaurants will be restricted to takeaway only, dine-in is not allowed. Pubs will have to close.
The following venues will also forced to shut: Gyms, pools, community centres, entertainment venues, play centres and libraries.
INTERNATIONAL ARRIVALS PAUSED
International arrivals into Victoria will cease from Saturday.
“As part of the circuit breaker action taken today, we have paused all international passenger flights from tomorrow – excluding those already in transit,” a spokeswoman for the Premier said.
“We know this will be difficult news for people who are overseas and want to get home but our focus right now has to be taking this short, sharp action in response to this outbreak.
“We will continue to assess the impact of the UK strain of the virus on our program and international arrivals, and will provide more information on the duration of this pause soon.”
Passengers on flights already in transit will be quarantined on arrival in Victoria.
The update comes after Mr Andrews earlier this week halted plans to increase the weekly arrivals cap from 1120 to 1310 starting February 15, when other states will lift their capacity.
‘SHORT, SHARP CIRCUIT BREAKER’
Mr Andrews said he was left with no choice because of the speed with which cases were spreading.
“I know it’s not the place that we wanted to be in,” he said. “However, we’ve all given so much, we’ve all done so much. We’ve built something precious, and we have to make difficult decisions, and do difficult things, in order to defend what we’ve built.
“I am confident that this short, sharp circuit breaker will be effective.
“We will be able to smother this. We will be able to prevent it getting away from us.
“I want to be here on Wednesday next week announcing that these restrictions are coming off, but I can’t do it on my own. I need every single Victorian to work with me, and with our team, so that we can run this to ground and we can see this strategy work.”
He said the UK variant was posing huge problems to the contact tracing effort.
“We have talked about this (the UK strain) for a long time, because it is so hyper-infectious, and moves so fast, that it is presenting a very, very real challenge to our status, our stay-safe, stay-open, our precious thing that we’ve built — all of us — throughout 2020,” he said.
“Now, while we don’t have cases outside those that were notified as possible close contacts, those who had been, by virtue of who they’d been with or where they had been, while it’s not surprising that we’re seeing extra cases within those groups – and in some respects it’s pleasing that that’s where those cases are — the way in which they are presenting is a very significant concern to us.
“That makes it incredibly difficult, incredibly difficult — difficult to do contact tracing, because there is no gap, if you like, between when we have the first case and their close contacts and potentially others that they have spent time with.
“The whole process, because of the hyper-infectivity and the speed at which this moves, the whole process has been condensed down, and it is now, I am sad to have to report, it is the advice to me that we must assume that there are further cases in the community than we have positive results for, and that it is moving at a velocity that has not been seen anywhere in our country over the course of these last 12 months.”
PRODUCT LIMITS, SCENES OF PANIC BUYING
Coles and Woolworths have introduced purchase limits on certain items online and in stores across Victoria.
Items capped at two packs across both supermarket giants include toilet paper, flour, pasta, rice, sugar, eggs, hand sanitiser and long-life milk.
There have also been instances of panic buying in Melbourne despite supermarkets staying open during the lockdown.
Not even joking pic.twitter.com/AsKaUcmopn
— Madeleine Morris (@Mad_Morris) February 12, 2021
VIRUS COULD BE SPREADING AT ‘LIGHT SPEED’
Mr Andrews said he has to assume the virus is spreading at “light speed”.
“We may find that, because of the contact tracing that we’ve already done, because of these sorts of charts and the thousands of hours of work that’s gone on these last 10 days or so, that we don’t have this problem,” he said.
“The challenge is I can’t wait a week to be proven right in that. We have to assume, based on advice, that there’s transmission out there that we don’t know about, and that it’s not moving quickly, it’s moving at light speed.
“And unless we –— unless we make these decisions and limit movement in a short, sharp circuit breaker event, then we may be here in a week, regretting that we didn’t follow that advice. “That’s not the way we’ve operated, and it won’t be the way that we ever operate.”
Authorities are not only concerned about the growing Holiday Inn cluster, but they are also understood to have worried about virus fragments detected in wastewater across Melbourne.
A source close to Emergency Management Victoria told the Herald Sun authorities feared they had lost control of the outbreak — describing scenes of “pandemonium” at the agency.
They told the newspaper there were deep concerns at the failure of contact tracers to match information they had been given by confirmed cases and their close contacts with what the results of sewage testing was showing about the virus’s spread.
Officials are working with the theory that all of the cases linked to the Holiday Inn outbreak are UK strain cases — meaning it could spread a lot more quickly than the strain that took hold of Victoria last year.
RELATED: Qld reveals Victoria border restriction
RELATED: South Australia closes border with Greater Melbourne
7000 PEOPLE ON ALERT IN NSW, NEW ARRIVALS TO STAY HOME
In response to the situation, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has signed a public health order concerning travellers arriving into the state from Victoria.
“Under the state-wide Order, anyone arriving in NSW from Victoria after 11.59pm on Friday 12 February 2021 must remain at their home or place of residence for the five-day period announced by the Victorian Government,” NSW Health said in a statement on Friday night.
“The date previously advised (January 29) has been updated following advice from the NSW Chief Health Officer.
“People arriving in NSW from Victoria by air, rail or road (with the exception of people living in the border area) will also be required to complete an online declaration form.”
The health department said NSW residents in border communities will have “different requirements” given their daily interaction with Victorian residents.
“For NSW residents living along the Victorian border, the five-day stay-at-home requirement will only apply to people who have visited Greater Melbourne after 11.59pm on Friday 12 February. It will not apply to NSW border residents who travel into regional Victoria,” it said.
“The border community is defined by the map which was used for the large border ‘bubble’ arrangements at the end of the NSW-Victorian border closure last year.”
The same four reasons to leave home apply to those impacted by the order – shopping for essential items, medical and other care and caregiving, exercise, and essential work.
“NSW strongly advises against all non-essential travel to Victoria at this time,” NSW Health said.
“People who do choose to travel will be required to follow the stay-at-home requirement on their return. People subject to the restrictions in Victoria should not be travelling to NSW unless they are permitted to do so.”
âš ï¸ PUBLIC HEALTH ORDER âš ï¸
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) February 12, 2021
NSW will not be closing its borders. However, NSW has tightened entry requirements for returning NSW residents with the signing of a new Public Health Order, after the announcement by the Victorian Government of a five-day ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown. pic.twitter.com/8T7nOnFRtt
The health department is also scrambling to chase 7000 people who may have been exposed to COVID-19.
It is calling on anyone in NSW who was at Melbourne Airport, Terminal 4 (Jetstar) from 4:45am – 2pm on February 9 to immediately isolate, get tested and remain in isolation for 14 days since you were there, regardless of the test result.
Out of an abundance of caution, NSW Health is asking anyone who is a household contact of someone who visited Terminal 4 on 9 February at the above time to stay in isolation until that person receives a negative result.
In addition, anyone who attended any terminal at Melbourne Airport on February 7 and 8 must immediately get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
NSW Health is currently contacting about 7000 people who have entered NSW from Victoria after attending these venues of concern, to ensure they are aware of the requirements.
In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the border between the two states “will remain open”.
“We wish the people of Victoria well during this difficult time,” she said.
“NSW acted immediately to screen returning travellers from Victoria as soon as the information was provided to us. NSW Health continues to monitor the situation closely.”
Here is the full list of state and territory borders shut to Victorians.
WHAT ABOUT THE TENNIS?
Tennis fans will be shut out of the Australian Open from tomorrow after Victoria announced a raft of new restrictions as part of a five-day lockdown.
As part of the lockdown, public gatherings are not permitted and as such, no fans will be allowed at Melbourne Park to watch the tennis for the next five days.
Professional athletes are deemed “essential workers” so the grand slam can continue, but behind closed doors.
Nick Kyrgios has benefited greatly from the support of the local crowd in his two matches at the tournament and was able to request tonight’s blockbuster against world number three Dominic Thiem be played on his favoured John Cain Arena where the fans adore him.
Kyrgios’ rabid base will still be on hand to cheer him over the line against Thiem but should he win, his next encounters will be very different.
However, it’s unclear what will happen if Kyrgios’ match stretches past midnight – as unlikely as that may sound.
PRIME MINISTER RETURNS FROM MELBOURNE TRIP
Ahead of the announcement on Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison toured the CSL manufacturing plant in Victoria where local doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19 will be produced.
Under the updated advice from NSW Health, he is not required to isolate as he arrived in Sydney before midnight. Mr Morrison will travel to to the ACT for the Parliamentary sitting fortnight from Monday.
After his tour, he told reporters the traumatising impact of the lockdowns on Victorians was very “real” and he understood why it was upsetting news that the option was on the table.
He said a third shutdown of the Melbourne is the last thing anyone wants to see.
“I know you don’t want to see Victoria go back into what you had to endure last year,” Mr Morrison said, speaking directly to Melburnians and referencing the two long periods of lockdown.
“I can assure you that everyone is doing everything to ensure that’s not replicated again on this occasion. There’s no reason it should, as other states have demonstrated. You can get on top of this pretty quickly.
“I have reason for confidence that they can do the same thing by following that same process.”
But asked if he had been briefed that a third lockdown was imminent, Mr Morrison said “No”, adding that Health Minister Greg Hunt was being briefed by his Victorian counterpart.
RELATED: New location alerts as cluster spread
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EXPERT BACKS LOCKDOWN
Clinical epidemiologist, Professor Nancy Baxter, appeared to back the idea of another lockdown in the city — after two more people linked to the Holiday Inn coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne tested positive for coronavirus overnight and more exposure sites were listed.
“What I am concerned about is as the sites of the, at- risk sites grow and grow, there is the potential there has been some kind of spread outside of that group of close contacts that is already in quarantine,” she told Today on Friday morning.
“It could be a week or more before we know it. And so then there is that opportunity for spread throughout the community, under our very noses.
“I think if there is a time to really get this under control the time probably is now. So it is a very tough decision and, you know, if there is not any further community spread it always looks like this was out of proportion, but I must say you can’t prove prevention.
“So I think this is something that the Victorian government needs to be thinking about very hard today in terms of whether the best thing for us is to go into lockdown so we don’t have a third wave in Victoria.”
WHY ARE AUTHORITIES CONCERNED?
Authorities in Victoria announced five new local cases on Friday morning, although all five were reported on Thursday and overnight, so the figures were expected.
Both of the latest COVID-19 cases linked to the Holiday Inn cluster are household primary close contacts of previously announced infections.
It brings the total outbreak to 13, with six of the cases already confirmed by genomic sequencing as having the UK’s highly contagious B117 strain.
Two further individuals linked to the Holiday Inn outbreak have tested positive to coronavirus (COVID-19). Both are household primary close contacts of previously announced cases. This brings the number of cases linked to this outbreak to 13.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 11, 2021
Victoria Health also added Brunetti at Melbourne Airport’s Terminal 4 to the list of Tier 1 exposure sites overnight. Anyone who visited the cafe between 4.45am and 1.15pm on Tuesday 9 February must get tested and remain isolated for 14 days.
Earlier, a staff member at the Holiday Inn in Tullamarine became the latest infection linked to the cluster. Victoria’s Deputy Secretary of Community Engagement and Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar said at that point that it was a “working assumption” that all cases associated with the hotel cluster were of the UK variant.
“Clearly it is a very live outbreak, we are at this stage reassured by the fact that all of these positives emerged from a primary contact field, that is important to us.
“And although we are now seeing two cases of household transmission, again it’s in the household, that gives us some confidence, but that is early days.”
It comes as Australia’s chief medical officer said he will investigate claims that a man breached hotel quarantine requirements in the state and slipped through hotel staff to deliver a PlayStation 4 to a friend in quarantine.
The potential breach at the Park Royal hotel is the latest blow for Victoria as it grapples with its growing cluster near Melbourne airport.
At a press conference on Thursday, Professor Paul Kelly said he would “follow it up” and that the situation was “not ideal”.
“What you describe there is not ideal of course, we want quarantine to be exactly that, to separate people from the wider community to minimise the chances of the virus spreading.
“So that's not an ideal situation and I’m sure the Victorian authorities are looking into that, but I’ll follow it up.”
RELATED: The Aussies least likely to get vaccine
– with Samantha Maiden and NCA NewsWire
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