Victorian outbreaks must not risk nation’s recovery

Much of the damage was done a fortnight ago. Sure, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews urged protesters not to attend the Black Lives Matter march on June 6. But when the event was not stopped, and the tens of thousands of people who broke social-distancing laws were not fined as Victoria Police stood lamely by, many others, fed up with isolation and restrictions, gave up on the rules in disgust. They forgot, or chose to forget, there is no room for complacency. As a result, cases of COVID-19 lurking in the community, partly because of authorities’ ineffective responses to earlier outbreaks, began to spread. The weekend mini-spike in Victoria, 25 new cases announced on Saturday and 19 more on Sunday, is a salutary lesson for all jurisdictions. Yet again, the potential of this stealthy, highly contagious virus to wreak havoc with citizens’ lives and livelihoods has been writ large. It comes as the international situation is deteriorating. On Saturday, the World Health Organisation said the pandemic was accelerating, with more than 150,000 new cases reported within 24 hours, the highest single-day number to date. More than half of the new patients were in the Americas, with many also from South Asia and the Middle East. More than 467,000 people have died from almost nine million cases worldwide.

Victoria has reached “a tipping point’’ as its Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, says. Mr Andrews had no alternative at the weekend but to delay the relaxation of restrictions due to be lifted on Monday. Doing so comes at a high cost, however, for hard-pressed restaurateurs, cafe owners and their staff. As John Ferguson and Rachel Baxendale report, they have spent tens of thousands of dollars stocking up in anticipation of serving 50 customers at a time rather than 20. Business owners’ anger at facing $10,000 fines for letting 21 patrons eat at their well-scrubbed, well-spread-out tables, while Black Lives Matter protesters got off scot-free, is understandable.

Three protesters have tested positive, and a fourth case is linked to one of them. But the bigger problem was the signal sent by the attitude of authorities to the march. Mr Andrews is right not to rule out lockdowns in the worst-affected suburbs of Melbourne; they could be a means to spare the rest of the state, especially regional areas that are free of the virus, from further economic hardship. Nor should the latest outbreaks, being relatively isolated to a couple of outer Melbourne suburbs, be allowed to delay the opening up of the rest of the nation, including state borders. Jobs, small businesses, living standards, community wellbeing and families’ and individuals’ mental health are all at stake, as well as the nation’s economic future. Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles has suggested reopening of the state’s borders could be delayed beyond July 10 because of fears of a dreaded second wave of coronavirus in Victoria. Such head-in-the-sand isolationism has never been justified on medical grounds or called for by the commonwealth’s most senior medical officers. Border closures and the clamp on interstate travel are costing about 5000 jobs a week and shrinking the nation’s economic output by $84m a day. Economic analysis reported last week shows Queensland is the worst-affected state, losing more than 1000 jobs a week and $147m in economic activity. That is untenable.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan is also using Victoria’s predicament to try to justify his keeping WA’s borders locked. As Scott Morrison said last month, we can’t keep Australia under the doona.

Emerging from the pandemic was inevitably going to see breakouts of COVID-19. But Australians can take comfort that our health system has the expertise, facilities and resources to cope. Testing, tracking and containing outbreaks is crucial. So is learning from mistakes. In Victoria, the breakout of 11 cases across nine households in Keilor Downs, in Melbourne’s outer northwest, arises from cases reported by the Victorian government last month. Comprehensive, localised case management to prevent local spikes becoming a second wave, endangering lives and the national economy, must be the priority of all states.