Lockdown threat as doors shut on housing estates
Millions of Victorians will return to lockdown unless the rapid spread of COVID-19 across Melbourne can be stopped, Premier Daniel Andrews has warned.
Millions of Victorians will return to lockdown unless the rapid spread of COVID-19 across Melbourne can be stopped, Premier Daniel Andrews has warned.
More than 3000 public housing tenants spent their first full day detained inside their apartments with 500 police guarding the buildings on Sunday as health authorities struggled to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.
The extraordinary lockdown of nine public housing towers was backed by federal Health Minister Greg Hunt and Acting Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly.
Victoria recorded another 74 infections on Sunday after a spike of 108 new cases on Saturday, while there were 14 new cases in NSW and six in Western Australia. All bar those in Victoria were in hotel quarantine.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, described the situation in the public housing apartments as one that had “genuinely explosive potential for the spread of the virus”.
“I don’t think we’ve turned the corner yet,” Professor Sutton said. “I think we can see other big days ahead of us, especially as we ramp up testing.’’
Residents of the Flemington and North Melbourne towers will be forced to remain inside for at least five days as health officials go door to door to conduct testing.
Anguished residents peered from the high-rise windows and complained about a lack of food and being cut off from the city.
But Mr Andrews said he would lock down “all postcodes” if people failed to co-operate by submitting to testing and isolating when sick.
“Because I won’t be locking down 12 postcodes,’’ he said. “I will have no choice but to lock down all postcodes.”
The latest statistics show the virus is galloping in some areas outside the official lockdown of 12 key suburbs, although Professor Sutton said the worst of the infections were in those areas.
In recent weeks the virus has crept ominously into Melbourne’s inner areas in the north and east.
The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services on Sunday revealed 59 cases of COVID-19 had been linked to Al-Taqwa College in the western suburb of Truganina — up from 33 on Saturday.
The department said previously identified cases had been linked to the outer western cluster on Sunday, in addition to eight new cases. The government announced 74 extra cases on Sunday.
A high proportion of Victoria’s current cases have been genomically linked to the quarantine breaches at the Stamford Plaza in the city and another quarantine hotel, Rydges on Swanston, which is associated with a separate cluster of at least 17 cases. There have been 27 cases in the housing estate high-rise buildings in Flemington and North Melbourne.
The Victorian government’s handling of the crisis is being savaged around Australia and in private among senior members of the Morrison government.
But publicly there has been strong support for Victoria’s attempts to deal with the pandemic.
Professor Kelly, who is the Acting Chief Health Officer after Brendan Murphy became the Health Department secretary last week, described the nine inner-city flats as being like “vertical cruise ships’’ because of their potential to infect hundreds of people.
Dr Kelly said he “absolutely” supported the Andrews government’s decision of postcode lockdowns and hard lockdowns at the housing estates.
“(We) have to take particular notice and particular attention to stop (the virus) spreading.”
There have been 401 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Victoria with an unknown source, including 136 in the past week. Victoria has 543 active cases of COVID-19 — a net increase of 312 in the week.
The state government is comparing the number of cases in each suburb with the state average each day and then analysing the data each week. Suburbs are given green, amber or red status to determine whether there should be further lockdowns.
The housing commission flats were red-flagged last week, leading to an exhaustive study that pinpointed them as a serious potential health problem.
The government said that the flats needed to be quarantined or hundreds of cases could flood into the community.
Mr Andrews, who is facing increasing political pressure over his handling of the pandemic, said all Victorians needed to take responsibility for testing and behaviour. Testing was crucial to determining whether the pandemic could be defeated.
“By knowing where the fire is you are best placed to then develop a strategy to put it out,’’ he said.
“They (the numbers) may need to go up more before they start to stabilise and then we get into a position where we can drive them down.”
Mr Andrews said the 3000 people locked down in the towers would not be charged rent and those who were employed would each receive a $1500 hardship payment.
“For those households where there is no one in employment, they will receive a $750 hardship payment,” Mr Andrews said.
“And there will be — and it’s already started — public health workers, nurses and others moving throughout each and every one of these floors and each and every one of the towers to test every resident, except of course those who have already been tested and have tested positive.”
A spokesman for Mt Hunt said: “While this is the most difficult of decisions, the commonwealth supports the actions of the Victorian government to help contain the virus.”
But NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay said the time had come for NSW to shut its borders or risk a catastrophe for the community.
“We have confidence that the Andrews government is taking appropriate action to contain its COVID-19 spread. However, our priority must, as always, be the public health of NSW,” she said.
Former federal Labor leader Bill Shorten’s electorate covers some of the towers.
“The state government has made it clear that these extraordinary steps had to be taken,” he said. “But such a big police presence would be disconcerting for anyone.”
