Victoria’s Covid coma: state of disaster

Melburnians will spend the next six weeks under the strictest curfew in Australian history as Daniel Andrews concedes his government’s strategy has failed.

Daniel Andrews listens to Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton in Melbourne on Sunday. Picture: David Geraghty

Melburnians will spend the next six weeks under the strictest curfew in Australia’s history, with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews slapping new restrictions on the city’s residents after conceding that his government’s existing strategy had failed to curtail the deadly sweep of the coronavirus across the state.

As Mr Andrews declared a state of disaster and implored Victorians to take a “collective responsibility” to stopping the march of COVID-19, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the move to stage-four restrictions laid bare the seriousness of the situation and “shock and awe” tactics were needed to get the message out loud and clear.

Announcing the move that will inevitably send businesses to the wall and cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of jobs, with profound economic implications for generations to come and the nat­ion as a whole, Mr Andrews said he had been left with no options other than the introduction of extreme measures. “If we were to pursue (the previous) strategy with a view to driving down numbers to a very low containable level where we could reopen, it would likely be the end of the year before we were able to reopen,” he said.

“That’s a six-month strategy that is simply not going to work.

“These are the decisions made because anything short of this will not keep us safe … That is not ­acceptable to me, having to stand here every day reporting more and more people dying. We need to come down on this hard.”

Under stage-four restrictions that came into effect on Sunday evening, residents of Melbourne will be confined to their homes between 8pm and 5am, with an exception for those who are required to carry out essential work or need urgent medical care.

Public transport is being reduced during curfew. In daylight hours, people will be permitted to leave their homes only to exercise for a maximum of one hour, within 5km of their residence.

Shopping is limited to one person a household a day, and to within 5km of people’s homes, with exceptions for those who live more than 5km from a supermarket.

Weddings are banned for at least the next six weeks, and funerals will continue under existing limits. All TAFE and university study and all schooling will be done from home, other than for the children of workers permitted to attend work and those deemed vulnerable.

From Thursday, kindergarten and early childhood education will be limited to children of permitted workers and vulnerable children.

Queues at Costco in Docklands ahead of the start of the 8pm curfew in Melbourne on Sunday. Picture: Paul Jeffers

The changes will be in place for at least until September 13.

Victoria’s number of corona­virus deaths doubled in the eight days to Sunday, and the number of active cases with no known source reached 760 — with another 3163 cases still under investigation as the state’s contact tracing team lags behind.

Justifying the move, Mr Andrews all but conceded that Vic­torians were on a trajectory where they would be unable to spend Christmas with their extended families without an intervention to arrest the increasing caseload, which reached 6322 active cases with 671 new cases on Sunday.

Scott Morrison described the harsher lockdown as “regrettably” necessary, saying the lives of all Australians depended on Victoria following the rules and staying home.

“Now all Victorians need to do their part,” the Prime Minister said. “ That is, stay home and don’t go to work if you’re sick, get tested if you have any symptoms at all, no matter how mild, and if you have tested positive or been in contact with a positive case, then you must isolate for 14 days.

“The lives of your fellow Australians depend on it.”

Victorian-based federal Health Minister Greg Hunt declared Sunday “one of the hardest days in Victoria’s history”.

Flinders Street Station in Melbourne shortly after the 8pm curfew came into force on Sunday. Picture: Josie Hayden

Mr Andrews’s decision to impose stage-four restrictions from 6pm on Sunday came after a series of meetings that ran long into Saturday night and throughout Sunday morning, involving the Premier, his crisis council of cabinet, health bureaucrats and federal authorities, including Mr Morrison. It followed a phone hook-up of the members of nat­ional cabinet on Friday.

Shortly after Mr Andrews’s marathon press conference, Mr Morrison issued his own short statement on Facebook, agreeing that the move was necessary to stem the spread of the virus. “I know today is a tough day for Victorians with news the state will face increased restrictions as it battles to get on top of the #COVID-19 outbreak,” he said.

“These measures are regrettably necessary, given the high rate of community transmission in the state.

“Victoria now has more than 6300 active cases and new cases show little sign of slowing down, with 671 further new cases reported today.”

Professor Sutton said the broad and deep measures of the bolstered lockdown would “absolutely see cases decreasing”, but there were no guarantees. “There’s shock and awe here for people to genuinely understand that it’s a super challenging phase that we’re in,” he said.

“We knew it would be harder and knew it wasn’t like the first wave but in part that’s because the fatigue that people have experienced and the sense of complacency about being able to go out and do shopping for pleasure and not for absolute necessity is part of the challenge.

“But I think the message is loud and clear now.”

Despite the failure of the previous stage-three restrictions to arrest Victoria’s increasing case numbers Professor Sutton said the situation would have been tens of thousands of cases worse without it. “There are estimates 20,000 cases have been averted over the period since stage-three restrictions have been in place but it wasn’t enough.

“To look at the numbers every day through the lens of a healthcare worker, you could not tolerate 500 cases, day in, day out, a dozen deaths, day in, day out, a number of new outbreaks and a number of new nursing home residents infected.

Police and troops patrol at The Tan in Melbourne on Sunday. Picture: Sarah Matray

“That is intolerable. Numbers have to change. It’s for everyone to play their role in doing that.”

From 11:59pm on Wednesday, all of regional Victoria will go into stage-three stay-at-home restrictions, allowing them to leave their homes to attend work or study, shop for essentials, exercise or seek medical care.

The Mitchell Shire north of Melbourne will from Wednesday revert to being considered part of regional Victoria, after being part of Melbourne’s stage-three lockdown since July 9.

There were 355 active cases across 31 regional Victorian local government areas on Sunday, up from 14 cases across six LGAs on July 9.

Mr Andrews is expected to make more announcements on Monday regarding restrictions for certain workplaces and industries.

Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said Mr Andrews had effectively conceded that this government had lost control of coronavirus in Victoria.

“The failings of the Labor government in hotel quarantine, in testing and contact tracing have led to millions of Victorians being subjected to the harshest restrictions in our history,” Mr O’Brien said.