Red-tape blues on restrictions prolong Melbourne’s agony

Red tape prevented five million Melburnians from being released from lockdown until Friday, Victorian health authorities say.

Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino, right, and chief health officer Brett Sutton in Melbourne on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images

Victorian health authorities say red tape prevented five million Melburnians from being released from lockdown until Friday, despite a decision on Tuesday night to allow a “careful easing” of ­restrictions.

Despite Acting Premier James Merlino hailing confirmation of a path out of a fortnight-long lockdown as a “good day”, the state’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said Victorians could not leave their homes a day earlier because there was “complex legal drafting to be done” to make new restrictions binding.

“That needs to be measured against all of the (Victorian) Charter (of Human Rights and Responsibilities) considerations for each and every charter obligation that is in play with restrictions, and to make sure that it’s not a sloppy process,” Professor Sutton said on Wednesday.

“We have to go through with a fine-tooth comb to make sure every single drafted piece with the public health directions (is) ­appropriate and correct.”

Business groups welcomed the easing, but said the gradual nat­ure of the reopening and continued uncertainty over the potential for further lockdowns would have lingering negative consequences.

Gyms and the events industry will continue to have no income for at least another week, with an ongoing ban on indoor exercise, and weddings capped at 10 guests.

A limit of 50 applies to funerals and religious gatherings.

While Melburnians will be allowed to leave their homes for non-essential reasons from midnight on Thursday, they may not travel more than 25km or visit ­regional Victoria – a ban that is expected to cost the tourism industry millions of dollars in lost revenue over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

Aged-care residents and hospital patients will have to wait at least another week for visits, a pause on elective surgery is expected to continue, and Melbourne’s CBD is set to remain a dead zone because of a 25 per cent capacity limit in office buildings.

Medical staff at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Melbourne take delivery of isolation gowns on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images

Hospitality businesses will be allowed seated patrons – subject to limits of one patron per 4sq m and no more than 50 patrons indoors – but gatherings in homes remain banned.

Regional Victoria moves to more relaxed restrictions on Thursday, with two adult guests a day permitted to visit households, gyms open and higher capacity limits at hospitality venues.

Mr Merlino said the government expected to further ease Melbourne’s restrictions in line with those in regional Victoria from Thursday, June 17.

In Melbourne, schoolchildren will be allowed to return to the classroom, but Education Minister Mr Merlino ruled out allowing that to take place as soon as Thursday, citing health advice.

There were 31,727 requests for federal emergency Covid-19 relief on Tuesday, the first day the scheme had opened, with 7868 payments of $500 or $325 already granted to workers who had lost income as a result of a second week of lockdowns in Melbourne.

Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said the timing, extension and slow easing of the lockdown and the possibility of further lockdowns in future were exacerbating the impact on businesses. He likened the mood to that of the final weeks of last year’s 112-day lockdown.

“The stress that’s out there … the bills are mounting up for businesses and there’s no income coming in; we’ve seen fatigue play a part here as well, and this lockdown came out of the blue just when businesses were starting to get up and going,” Mr Guerra said.

“We know there’ll be a toll – not only a financial toll but an emotional toll as well – and that’s why we need to come out of this lockdown and get rid of all restrictions as soon as we can to give businesses a chance to be able to claw their way back.”

Ai Group’s Victorian chief, Tim Piper, said the easing of restrictions was a “good start” but would “unfortunately do little to materially assist the economy or improve the mental health of people in metropolitan Melbourne who will remain feeling very restricted”.

“We had one linked case today. That isn’t enough to impose restrictions at this level,” he said.

“Let’s trust the testing and tracing that has been developed.”

In the seven days to Wednesday, there were 28 new Covid-19 cases in Victoria, all of which had been linked to known outbreaks, with just three new cases in the 48 hours to Wednesday.

It was not clear late on Wednesday where a 44-year-old Melbourne woman who tested positive in Queensland had contracted the virus, although she is believed to have been infectious when she left Victoria on June 1 and illegally drove through NSW to the sunshine state.

Victoria’s most recent Covid-19 cases with an unknown source of infection are the first linked to the Arcare aged-care facility in Maidstone on May 31, and the first case in the west Melbourne Delta cluster, which emerged on June 1.

Wednesday’s single new case was in an employee of Stratton Fin­ance in Port Melbourne, which has now been linked to 32 cases.

Another 32 cases have been linked to the Whittlesea cluster that emerged on May 24.

Investigations are ongoing into how the Delta strain leaked out of Victoria’s hotel quarantine system, with attention turning to the Novotel/Ibis quarantine hotel where the man stayed overnight and tested positive on May 8.

Both the manager and head of infection control at the Novotel/Ibis were fired in April, after reports were lodged detailing 51 incidents in the first four weeks of the quarantine hotel’s operation.

Last week, The Australian revealed concerns from residents in a neighbouring apartment regarding the presence in shared spaces of staff, food and medical waste, and linen used by positive cases.