Strict lockdown to stay despite pleas to ease

A hit of coffee and the promise of a bagel were enough to draw a crowd to Richmond in Melbourne on Sunday despite no moves to ease the lockdown. Picture: Rob Leeson

Victorian officials say they are reluctant to lift strict Covid-19 restrictions across Melbourne and parts of the state despite just four new cases recorded on Sunday.

Two of those — officially included in Monday’s numbers — are in the Arcare aged-care centre in Maidstone, where the first nursing home cases were recorded in the current Victorian outbreak.

With the streets of Melbourne largely deserted on Sunday — except for long lines outside some coffee shops — business groups said the government should relax restrictions in the city to the less onerous rules in place across regional Victoria, citing the low infection numbers.

But the state’s regions are also feeling the economic impact, with popular weekend tourism destinations empty and events axed.

Bendigo’s annual Heathcote on Show event was cancelled at the weekend, and mayor Jennifer Alden said lockdowns were “very frustrating and disappointing” for the organisers.

Acting Premier James Merlino — announcing another economic recovery package on Sunday — said the presence of the Delta strain in Victoria and other uncertainties about the transmission of the virus meant the state needed to remain cautious.

A Covid patient is transferred to a hospital transport at the Arcare Maidstone aged-care centre in Melbourne. Picture: Rob Leeson.

“My expectation is that by the end of (the 14-day lockdown), we will be in a position to have a further easing of restrictions in Melbourne and regional Victoria,” he said.

“The only way that we can get there is by following public health advice, having this period of lockdown, so we (can) drive this thing to the ground.

“The last thing we want is this variant of the virus getting out and becoming uncontrollable.”

There is no detailed road map to reopening, although there is likely to be restricted travel to ­regional areas after Thursday, when Melbourne is expected to end its current 14-day lockdown, its fourth since Covid-19 first struck in Australia in early 2020.

The two infections officially recorded on Sunday were both primary close contacts of an existing case while the two at Arcare — one a resident and the other staff — have received the vaccine and are asymptomatic.

On Sunday, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry urged the state to go to the same restrictions as regional Victoria and return to the previous settings if community transmission remained low during the week.

Paul Guerra, the chamber’s chief executive, said businesses should be able to trade.

“The ­Victorian chamber is calling for metropolitan Victoria to go to the same settings as regional Victoria now with a snapback to pre-­lockdown settings on Friday,” he said.

He welcomed the extra economic recovery funding — a $32m package that includes 10,000 new regional travel vouchers valued at $200 each to help operators affected by the current restrictions.

A cleaner at work in the BP service station in Mickleham, which is listed as a Covid exposure site. Picture: David Geraghty

It also included support grants of up to $15,000 each for alpine ­resort operators.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Sunday said the commonwealth would send an additional 100,000 Pfizer doses to immunise 50,000 Victorians from June 14.

“This week will allow them to work through some of their existing inventory and will provide that extra 100,000 doses, which will support 50,000 individuals to receive vaccines over the coming weeks,” he said.

Allen Cheng, Victoria’s deputy chief health officer, said he remained concerned about the ­persistence of the Delta strain of the virus in Victoria, although he added that there had not been any evidence of a significant outbreak.

Professor Cheng said that fighting the virus was akin to trying to hold back a wall of water.

“In the short term, we do need to do this to get on top of things — my hope would be that while we are still continuing to roll out the vaccination campaign, we can keep a lid on it and have no community transmission, like we had before,’’ he said.

“But there is a sense of ­urgency.

A near-deserted Melbourne CBD. Picture: Paul Jeffers

“We cannot hold this forever.

“If you look at other countries, ­particularly in our region, they are having to go back into lockdown — (it) is a dam wall that is straining, it is a difficult one to hold back.”

There are 85 active cases and almost 30,000 test results were received on Saturday – with about 40,000 Covid-19 vaccinations ­delivered.

Three cases have not yet had the source determined.

These are at Whittlesea and in the aged care and West Melbourne outbreaks, where the Delta strain has been detected.

Professor Cheng said indi­cations were good but that there were some “upstream concerns”.

“There are a small number of exposure sites but most people we are seeing are already in quarantine and therefore there is no downstream risk from there,” he said.

“What we are somewhat concerned about is the upstream … so for these cases we can’t find who gave them the infection,” Professor Cheng said.