Coronavirus Victoria: Daniel Andrews warns lockdown fatigue could derail state’s progress

Premier Daniel Andrews has warned of the one thing that could derail Victoria‘s continued downward trending daily case numbers.

Premier Daniel Andrews has warned of the one thing that could derail Victoria‘s continued low case numbers: lockdown fatigue.

“The only thing that wins if we let our fatigue get the better of us, the only thing that will beat us if we, you know, pretend this is over because we desperately want it to be over, is, of course, this virus,” Mr Andrews told reporters on Sunday.

In the 24 hours leading up to Sunday, Victoria recorded 208 new cases of coronavirus. The state also reported 17 deaths taking the death toll in Victoria to 415. Of the 17 deaths reported today, 11 were linked to aged care facilities.

In Metropolitan Melbourne strict stage four lockdowns have been in place for three weeks, while stage three restrictions have been in place across the rest of the state.

But as the number of new daily infections continues to trend downwards, the Premier has warned Victorians not to become complacent.

“It feeds off any complacency, any sense of fatigue, any sense that, you know, we‘re not equal to this task and we can’t stay the course,” Mr Andrews said.

“The only thing that will win out of that is this virus and we just can‘t let that happen.”

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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews warned that complacency could derail Victoria’s progress in controlling the coronavirus. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

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Mr Andrews said he‘s “deeply proud and grateful” of the growing number of Victorians doing the right thing.

“This is something that we just have to get through. We‘ve got to get past. I know it’s incredibly difficult, it really is, but if we let our fatigue get the better of us, the only victor, the only winner out of that will be this virus because it will spread more easily and the great tragedy of that it will mean economic repair is further off and it will mean more people are in hospital, gravely ill. And sadly it will mean more people will die.”

Mr Andrews added the current strategy was bringing case numbers down but it “only takes one” person to undo all of that progress.

As Melbourne hits the halfway point of its lockdown, Mr Andrews warned the next few weeks will be “challenging”.

“Just because when you start to get down to those smaller numbers, it only takes one, only takes a few bad choices or some, you know, some bad luck as it might be when you‘re talking about numbers that small, but we just all have got to stay the course on this.

“There‘s just no alternative,” he said.