Coronavirus: Death and dismay as longer lockdown looms in Victoria

Following deadliest day of pandemic, Daniel Andrews refuses to guarantee Victoria’s second lockdown will end on time.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews speaks to the media yesterday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

The deadliest day in Australia’s coronavirus pandemic and another sharp rise in infections in Victoria have increased doubts Melbourne’s six-week lockdown will end on time in a potential blow to the national economic recovery.

Premier Daniel Andrews said he could not guarantee the state’s second lockdown would finish in six weeks after the state recorded 10 deaths and another 459 new coronavirus infections, its second highest rate of infections since the pandemic began.

An angry Mr Andrews savaged residents who were failing to use masks or comply with other health orders.

 

“This is not about human rights,” he said. “There are 10 families that are going to be burying someone in the next few days. Wear a mask — it’s not too much to ask.”

Mr Andrews urged Melburnians to follow social distancing rules as Josh Frydenberg warned the Victorian fight against the virus was crucial to the Australian economy.

The Treasurer said half the ­recipients of the extended but ­reduced JobKeeper payment, which begin from October, would be Victorians.

There were 475 new cases across the nation on Sunday. NSW recorded 14 new cases and Western Australia two as the non-Victorian states continued to prevent large-scale breakouts.

The 10 deaths in Victoria comprised seven men, including one in his 40s. The latest deaths brought to 71 the number of Victorians who had died, including 15 over a two-day period. Of the deaths reported on Sunday, seven died in aged-care settings. There were 228 ­people in hospital including 42 in intensive care.

Coronavirus graphic for splash on Vic outbreak

The government called in about 200 off-duty paramedics, and third-year students will start helping with contact tracing.

Up to 150 Australian Defence Force personnel will also work with Ambulance Victoria over the next 10 days to help transport equipment, freeing up paramedics to do other tasks.

Mr Andrews said the timeline for the end of the shutdown, which started on July 8, could not be predicted because of the volatility of the coronavirus numbers. While he could not guarantee the lockdown would end in August he said the numbers could drop quickly if people continued to wear masks and practise social distancing.

“We are approaching the halfway mark. We’ve been clear that it would get worse before it got better, but stability had to be achieved before we would start to see numbers fall,” he said.

“The fact of the matter is I can’t tell you where we will be in ­another 3½ weeks but what I can confirm for you … is that the data will drive the decisions.”

The Victorian government moved to overhaul its COVID-19 messaging at the weekend with a graphic advertising blitz built around personal ­stories of survivors, frontline workers and their families.

In one clip, survivor Michael said his experience was “like drowning”.

The middle-aged Victorian detailed how his wife contracted the virus, and his mother-in-law, who most likely caught it from his wife, would go on to die from COVID-19.

“COVID is real, it is very real,” he said.

The Victorian government got this one right. #coronavirus #coronavirusaustralia #coronavirusvictoria https://t.co/4LVNrM5rR9 pic.twitter.com/1UPnRAfLIF

— Daniel Sankey (@Daniel_Sankey) July 25, 2020

Authorities are trying to trace a massive 1253 cases that may ­involve community transmission. Another 4233 cases are active in Victoria, including 381 healthcare workers with a total of 560 active cases linked to aged-care settings.

Australian Defence Force personnel are helping with contract tracing in regional Victoria as the number of cases grows, including in the Colac-Otway region which has 47 cases.

National deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth declared the soaring Victorian numbers a national challenge.

But he expressed hope the flood of medical and defence personnel helping the Victorian battle against the disease and the lockdown provisions such as masks could assist the crisis.

While the federal government’s economic update estimated a hit to GDP in 2020 of 3.75 per cent, the rebound of 2.5 per cent in 2021 assumed the Victorian lockdown lasted for six weeks.

This has raised the question of whether or not the forecasts are sustainable, particularly if the ­infections continue to remain stubbornly high in Victoria.

Speaking on the ABC’s Insiders program, Mr Frydenberg said Treasury data showed 975,000 of the 3.5 million people receiving JobKeeper were employed in Victoria. About three-quarters of this group — about 731,000 Victorians — were on track to receive the payment from October to ­December.

“It’s a very fluid situation,” the Treasurer told the ABC. “Victoria is in a six-week lockdown. It’s ­obviously a quarter of the national economy.”

The Victorian outbreaks have ravaged the aged-care sector, with hundreds of active cases expected to lead to a spiralling ­increase in the death toll. Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said on Sunday a surge workforce of 450 had been deployed in Victorian nursing homes to battle a spike in infection in the state’s nursing homes.

He also said the voluntary agreement for aged-care workers to work only on one site would start on Monday. The move came after aged-care workers employed on several sites were found to have spread the virus between homes.

Senator Colbeck said the deaths had underlined the extent to which every measure needed to be taken to combat the virus to spare lives.

“Even with these safeguards, the outbreaks in aged care are a sad and unfortunate repercussion of the level of community spread currently being experienced in Victoria,” he said.

“The commonwealth is ­already providing a surge workforce and supplementation support of more than 450 in aged-care facilities, and continues to work intensively, including through the new centre, to ­engage and co-ordinate the workforce required to meet the needs in the sector.’’