Covid-19: I don’t have to prove that curfews work, says Daniel Andrews

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he does not need to prove the efficacy of a curfew in bringing down coronavirus case numbers.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in Melbourne on Tuesday. Picture: David Crosling

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he does not need to prove the efficacy of a curfew in bringing down coronavirus case numbers, despite having chosen to impose one on five million Melburnians.

Until at least September 2, Melburnians can be fined $1817 on the spot for leaving home between 9pm and 5am, unless they have an essential worker permit or require urgent medical care.

Asked to justify the curfew in light of comments from epidemiologists, including the Doherty Institute’s Jodie McVernon and ANU’s Peter Collignon, that they had not seen evidence proving such rules curbed the spread of coronavirus, Mr Andrews said: “It is not for me to prove the efficacy of any one measure.”

“No one has ever maintained that any one measure is the way out of this, so therefore it is not for me to provide hard data that establishes that,” he said on Tuesday. “I have never made that claim. We have never made that claim. If one thing alone was all we needed to do, then we would just do that one thing.

“We have a suite of measures and we have an experience — a tragic, terrible experience from last year where we went from more than 700 cases a day to zero.

“Each of those measures played a part in that, and that’s why the chief health officer has provided his advice to reinstitute the curfew.”

Mr Andrews was unable to say whether any of the 228 cases so far linked to the current outbreaks had been acquired outdoors after 9pm, but said the new rules were not related to cases already transmitted. “This is about stopping further cases. We can’t reverse those positives that are ­already there,” he said.

“But let me just be clear about, you know, the shocking impingement on people’s human rights. Like, it means you can’t go shopping in the middle of the night. It means you can’t go and do your exercise in the middle of the night – and for anyone inconvenienced by that, of course I apologise.”

Victoria recorded 24 new community acquired cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, including 10 in people who spent time in the community while infectious.

Of the 228 cases linked to outbreaks that have emerged since August 4, 134, or 59 per cent, have been in people who were not quarantined for the duration of their infectious period.

As of Monday, there were eight separate outbreaks spread across Melbourne for which contact tracers were yet to find a source of infection – from Newport and Maribyrnong in the west to Wyndham Vale in the outer southwest, Glenroy in the northwest, St Kilda, Middle Park and East St Kilda in the inner southeast, and the City of Melbourne and Carlton in the inner city.

Among Tuesday’s cases were a further three that are yet to be linked to previously known outbreaks, including one person from St Kilda and two people known to each other from the City of Melbourne and St Kilda respectively.

With 31,519 tests processed on Monday, down from 34,892 the previous Monday and last week’s peak of 45,408 on Wednesday, health department deputy secretary in charge of contact tracing Kate Matson urged people in the Bayside, Port Melbourne and Glen Eira LGAs to get tested.

Amid a ban on the use of playgrounds, chief health officer Brett Sutton revealed 50 of 227 active cases in Victoria were in children aged under 10.