School closes as Victorian cases spark uncertainty over lockdown extension
Victoria’s chief health officer has given a strong hint that the state’s lockdown will be extended, describing the situation as “really concerning”.
Victoria’s chief health officer has given a strong hint that the state’s lockdown will be extended after Victoria recorded a further eleven Covid-19 cases.
The lockdown was supposed to end at 11.59pm on Thursday, but another mystery case has been detected while an outbreak at an aged care home has spread.
Brett Sutton said today the state was in a “neck and neck with this virus” — describing it as an “absolute beast”.
He said authorities were discussing the lockdown measures day to day, but the latest developments were “really concerning”.
“We’ve gone from a single case of the beginning of the month to 4200 primary close contacts,” he said.
“It has been a rapidly moving virus and the transmission that has occurred in those high-risk settings has been very substantial.
“So we have to take it as a day by day prospect. With more numbers today coming through and those really concerning settings, especially in aged care, we are neck and neck with this virus and it is an absolute beast.”
He said Victoria has to “prepare for anything” in the coming days.
“We don’t know what will unfold over coming days,” he said. “We have said that all the way through.
“We interrogate the data very deeply on a day by day basis. We could get very reassuring news over the rest of today but we have had staff come to us in the last 48 hours. It is very concerning and we need to bear that in mind.”
Acting premier James Merlino said the state’s outbreak “may well get worse before it gets better.”
He said a further six locally acquired cases came through after the late-night cut-off last night, meaning six new cases were added to the five detected yesterday.
He confirmed that one of the new cases was a mystery case.
“Of the cases formally reported today, one is a contact of a previous case linked to the star car wash and one source of acquisition is under investigation,” he said.
“There are a significant number of further exposure sites linked to the positive cases that have been published online overnight and this morning, including a number of tier 1 sites.”
The new mystery case means there are now two cases of unknown origin in the state.
One of the cases revealed in yesterday’s numbers works at the Arcare Maidstone aged care facility in Melbourne’s northwest.
Health authorities are scrambling to determine how the female health care worker, who lives in Altona, caught the virus. She was asymptomatic and wore a mask when she worked shifts on Wednesday and Thursday.
The emergence of mystery cases has thrown up a huge barrier for Victoria coming out of lockdown this week.
Arcare has confirmed one resident and two staff members have tested positive to covid-19.
The resident is showing mild symptoms, but Arcare says they are being moved to hospital where their condition can be closely monitored.
Elsewhere a primary school in Melbourne’s outer northern suburbs has been closed after it was linked to the state’s outbreak.
Willmott Park Primary School notified staff and parents on Monday morning it had been closed for deep cleaning due to a coronavirus case.
The Craigieburn school is yet to be officially listed as an exposure site on the Department of Health’s website.
A note sent out to the school’s community by assistant principal Carmel Guglielmino said the campus would be shut until further notice.
The state’s cluster rose to 51 on Monday after eleven new locally acquired Covid-19 cases were recorded.
That comes after an additional five cases were picked up on Sunday.
Of those cases, two of the five cases were close contacts of other cases, with links between the other three new cases and one is linked to a known exposure site.
Links to the other new cases, including an aged care staff member, are being investigated. Authorities described the aged care worker as a “mystery case”.
Reported yesterday: 5 new local cases.
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More than 15,000 primary and secondary contacts have been forced into isolation, with Victoria’s list of exposure sites now soaring past 250.
Authorities are particularly concerned about the number of “high-risk” venues being identified, such as pubs and clubs, leading to fears the state could see an explosion of infections in the coming days.
Australians getting vaccinated in record numbers
Almost 600,000 Australians have been vaccinated over the past six days in a record high, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Sunday.
“This week has seen Australians come out in record numbers, we are six days into the week and already we have seen a record number of australians for this week, 599,846 be vaccinated,” Mr Hunt said.
“More people are being vaccinated at a faster rate than ever before”.
Overall 4.2 million doses have been administered.
Many Australians are gearing up for their second dose of the AstraZeneca, with Mr Hunt pleading for people not to delay.
“Today marks the commencement of the second dose phase for the AstraZeneca, 2.8 million Australians have had first doses,” he said. “Please do not wait, come when your 12 weeks has been completed for AstraZeneca, and three weeks for Pfizer.”
When asked whether the vaccination message had been confused and the government needed a reset on that, Mr Hunt said the message had always been for people to come forward at the earliest possible time.
“Indeed, I said that a couple of weeks ago in response to a question and it was very clear that the message is do not wait,” he said.
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Victoria ‘has most support of any state’
Mr Hunt has also responded to a claim by Victoria’s Acting Premier James Merlino the Federal Government isn’t providing enough support to the state.
“We welcome the Victorian support, we think it’s appropriate under the circumstances,” he said.
“It builds on the $45 billion which the Commonwealth has provided to Victoria, far and away the highest per capita economic support to any state or territory. It supplements the $13 billion which Victoria has put in place.”
He outlined a range of measures which have been put in place to support the state.
“We have four ongoing measures as an example which are supporting Victorians. One is the Pandemic Leave Disaster payment of $1500. Two, the National Health Emergency Crisis payment.
“Three, the ongoing business support of the last carryback program for any business which may make a loss during the course of the financial year where they can receive a rebate against profits, up from previous years. And then the immediate expense measures.”
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg also defended the federal government, pointing out that Victoria is the third state to introduce a short lockdown and the only one to ask for more financial aid.
Mr Frydenberg wrote on his Facebook page: “In both the Queensland and Western Australian lockdowns further federal support was not required.
“In the case of Victoria, the Morrison Government has provided and continues to provide an unprecedented level of direct economic support. Over $45 billion has already flowed to Victorian families and businesses during Covid, with more direct federal economic support per capita going to Victoria than to any other state.”
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Lockdown extension on the cards, expert says
The lockdown, which allows Victorians just five reasons to leave their homes, is due to end at 11.59pm on June 3, but authorities have repeatedly said it is too early to know whether this will actually happen.
Mr Merlino said on Sunday there were a number of factors to take into account when deciding on whether the lockdown will end, including the number of cases, the types of cases, if there are any mystery cases, the number of exposure sites and the pace of transmission.
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“We’re three days into a 7-day lockdown, this is very, very serious matter. Today we are talking about a mystery case. Today we’re talking about aged care. There is a lot of work to do,” he said.
Mr Merlino said the current lockdown restrictions were being evaluated “every hour of every day”, adding there was no specific threshold that would see the lockdown lifted or extended.
“We will get advice from public health when it we can ease these restrictions on the seven-day circuit breaker lockdown,” Mr Merlino said.
“I go back to the advice we received just days ago and public health that we needed to go into the circuit breaker lockdown because if we can’t get ahead, if we can’t get ahead of this outbreak then it becomes uncontrollable. And everybody knows what that means.
“We are still too early to talk about any easing of restrictions. This is a very serious outbreak.”
But even if the lockdown does end, it is looking like some of the tough restrictions will remain in place.
Mask rules for indoor activities are set to stay and new density limits will be brought in for venues, according to the Sunday Herald Sun.
The reopening of schools will reportedly depend on whether Victoria is experiencing uncontained transmission of the virus by midweek.
Under the current seven-day “circuit breaker” lockdown, residents are only allowed to leave their homes to get food and supplies, for authorised work, for care and caregiving, to exercise for up to two hours each day with one other person, and to get vaccinated.
A raft of other restrictions around masks, gatherings, venues and businesses are also in place.
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Epidemiologist and World Health Organisation (WHO) adviser, Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, believes there could be a very real chance that the lockdown is extended.
She told ABC’s Weekend Breakfast the seven-day lockdown covers one incubation period, and towards the end of the lockdown they made decide they need to extend it for another seven days.
“In outbreak management it’s normally two average incubation periods to get to zero and a really good idea of what is going on,” Professor McLaws said.
“A seven-day lockdown probably would’ve been OK, had it been fewer cases.”
‘Beyond disappointed’: Victoria hits out at PM
Mr Merlino did hold back when expressing his disappointment in the lack of federal government support for businesses suffering as a result of the state’s seven-day lockdown.
Speaking during Sunday’s press conference, Mr Merlino announced a $250 million support package for small and medium sized businesses, including sole traders.
Mr Merlino said the package would support the businesses that have been the hardest hit by the lockdown, before calling out the federal government for ignoring requests for further assistance.
RELATED: Melbourne school student tests positive
“At the same time, Victorian workers need support and that is where we needed Canberra to come to the table and I am very sorry to say that they have refused to do that,” he said.
“We asked multiple times for the federal government to support workers during this period and the unrelenting answer has been, no.
“Victorian workers deserve more from the federal government and I am beyond disappointed that the answer from the Prime Minister and the Treasurer has been no.”
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas also piled on the government, calling for them to “step up to the plate”.
“You will hear a lot from the federal government about the need for us to work in partnership, well, we are not a silent partner,” he said.
“They like making speeches. They are not a tangible partner. We need them to step up to the plate. Workers need them, the community needs them.”
Mr Pallas said he was “angry and disappointed”.
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