State of confidence but virus is ‘stubborn’

The Victorian premier and chief fealth officer are ‘confident’ the state’s daily coronavirus figures will not exceed 300 or 400 cases again under their watch.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton arrive at a press conference in Melbourne of Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and his Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, have declared they are “confident” the state’s daily coronavirus figures will not exceed 300 or 400 cases a day again under their watch, but warned of “stubborn” transmission in certain settings that may be difficult to completely suppress as Victoria’s numbers drop.

The state’s cases peaked with 725 new cases and a seven-day daily average of 573 cases on Aug­ust 5, as part of a second wave linked to a handful of cases in hotel quarantine.

Sunday saw the state’s daily number of new cases rise above 200 for the first time in three days, with 208 new cases, following on from 182 new cases on Saturday and 179 on Friday.

The overall trend continued downward, with the seven-day daily average falling from 229 on Saturday to 218 on Sunday — the lowest such average since July 14, almost six weeks ago.

“The numbers are bouncing around a little bit, but we’re not going to see 300s and 400s again in Victoria — not under my watch at least,” Professor Sutton said.

The Andrews government on Sunday released mobility data for the first two weeks of Victoria’s stage-four lockdown — which began on August 2 and ends on September 13 — showing that although fewer people were moving around the community during the second week of the lockdown than the first, more were active on the second weekend of the lockdown than they had been the previous weekend.

Premier Daniel Andrews attributed some of the mobility to sunny weather on the weekend of August 15 and 16, welcoming the icy blast Victoria received this weekend, but warning against complacency during the second half of the lockdown.

“This is a very stubborn thing and it won’t go away easily,” Mr Andrews said.

“I think that it will be challenging these next two, three weeks just because when you start to get down to those smaller numbers, it only takes a few bad choices or some bad luck.”

Asked whether he was as confident as Professor Sutton that Victoria would not again see daily numbers above 300, despite having days of no new cases between the state’s two waves of infections, Mr Andrews said: “I am.”

Victoria had 17 coronavirus-related deaths in the 24 hours to Sunday, bringing the state’s death toll to 415, all but 20 of which have occurred since July 4.