73 new cases, Dandenong Hospital added to exposure site list
A critical care nurse has revealed the huge physical and emotional toll the pandemic has taken as she braces for another surge.
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A Covid-19 case has been detected in two wards of Dandenong Hospital, forcing staff and patients to get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
The Children’s Ward and North Ward 1 were identified as Tier 2 sites from August 25-27.
An infected case attended between 10.18am on Wednesday August 25 and 11.11am on Friday August 27, including all of Thursday August 26.
Other new sites have been identified in Glen Waverley, the CBD, Altona North, Campbellfield, Ringwood, Chirnside Park, Chadstone and Shepparton.
There are now 900 venues on the exposure site list.
It comes as 73 new cases emerged in Victoria overnight, including 21 mystery infections. At least 24 of the latest cases were in isolation during their infectious period, and the state’s crippling sixth lockdown has been extended with no end date in sight.
Meanwhile, Australia has hit two tragic milestones after the first Indigenous death from Covid-19 was reported on Monday.
A man in his 50s is understood to be the nation’s first Indigenous person to die of Covid-19, as the number of deaths caused by the pandemic surpasses 1000 across Australia.
NSW also recorded yet another record daily increase, with 1290 new local Covid cases emerging overnight.
ICU NURSE REVEALS COVID TOLL
A senior nurse says her team, which has helped prevent hundreds of admissions to intensive care, are bracing for an overwhelming surge of admissions unless vaccination rates pick up.
Kylie Fisher, who works in the critical care liaison team in Western Health, on Monday painted a harrowing picture of the ward nurses who came to her “overwhelmed, in tears, bloody and worried” last year.
“I saw tears, I saw exhaustion, I saw nurses consoling nurses,” she said.
“I saw blood across the ridges of their noses and ears from wearing PPE for 12 hours at a time.
“Long shifts on their feet, kilometres and kilometres they clock up … They would come to me and say ‘it’s like nothing we have ever seen before’.
“I’m worried I’m going to have to ask them to stand up and do it again. And they will. But they shouldn’t have to.”
Ms Fisher said getting vaccinated will not only ease the workload on ICU staff, but would keep individuals, families and whole communities safe.
Of the 805 active cases in Victoria at the moment, 15 people are in intensive care, 11 of whom are on ventilators.
Ms Fisher said the high transmissibility of Delta meant she had serious fears the state’s ICU’s would become more overwhelmed.
“Last year we managed a large portion of our acutely unwell patients within the ward setting. But I’m worried that being more contagious, our ICU beds will quickly be utilised and we’ll struggle to meet the demand of … the community,” she said.
“I know that we’re confident that we’ll be able to serve our community and make beds available, but we don’t know what type of numbers we’re looking at.”
She said she understood how difficult lockdown was for the community, but patients with Delta were entering the ICU and being placed on ventilators at a faster rate than last year’s outbreaks.
“This year, I’m seeing admissions straight to the ICUs,” she said.
“Please get vaccinated. It’s the best way to keep yourself, your community, your loved ones safe and to make sure our healthcare workers aren’t overwhelmed and they can support patients when they do need our help.”
HOW VICTORIAN OUTBREAK IS STABILISING
Health authorities have revealed how Victoria’s outbreak is “stabilising”, compared to how the NSW outbreak took off last month.
Victoria has recorded more than 50 local cases on nine of the past 11 days, but chief health officer Brett Sutton said the state’s number of cumulative days with 50 cases or more was “relatively flat compared to how it took off in NSW” in July.
But Prof Sutton acknowledged that Victoria was still in a very challenging position.
“We are hoping to see a trend, and maybe it’s stabilising over the last few days,” he said.
“With numbers not increasing exponentially, we are in a much better position than we may have been with exponential growth at the beginning of the outbreak.”
Prof Sutton said the stabilising numbers were a credit to Victorians following the rules and the work of contact tracers.
Mr Foley said the government hoped the outbreak had plateaued.
“There’s every indication the measures are starting to kick in,” he said.
PFIZER SUPPLIES RUN DRY FOR FIRST JABS
Health Minister Martin Foley revealed that Pfizer allocations were exhausted at vaccine hubs after bookings were opened to under-40s at 7am last Monday, but said people “shouldn’t give up”.
“There are currently no Pfizer bookings available right now for first doses in that system; don’t give up because as more becomes available from the commonwealth we will put more systems in place … if we get the supply, we can get people vaccinated,” he said.
The sought-after vaccine will be available for under-40s at GPs and pharmacists from Monday, with Mr Foley urging Victorians to book in.
“Today is the day that both GPs and pharmacies will begin to open up for Victorians at 16 and above for Pfizer. That is under the rollout,” he said.
“Please, if you can’t land one today through the state-run clinics, come back and look again tomorrow or in coming days, but perhaps, even more importantly, go and inquire through the GP network or the community pharmacy network to get access to that.
“Of course, the fantastically effective AstraZeneca vaccine continues to be available at state centres and at GPs and continues to be the ATAGI-endorsed vaccine, especially for the over-60s.
“Please come forward and get the best vaccination that is available for you and the best one that is available for you is the one available today.”
Government-run clinics administered 26,702 vaccine doses, with the close to recording a major vaccination milestone.
Within the next 24 hours, a total of five million jabs will have been put in Victorians’ arms.
WHERE LATEST CASES ARE LOCATED
There are 805 active cases in Victoria, including five in hotel quarantine.
Of the new infections:
• Twenty-one are mystery cases
• Nine are linked to the Shepparton outbreak
• Five are linked to the MyCentre childcare, Broadmeadows
• Five are linked to Al-Taqwa College
• Three are linked to City of Hobsons Bay
• Two to Glenroy West primary
• Two to Sunshine Hospital emergency department (household contacts)
• Two to Hoppers Crossing Chemist Warehouse
• One linked to The Royal Melbourne Hospital
• One to St Kilda East
• One to Barkly Square, Brunswick
• One to CS Square, Caroline Springs
• Twenty linked to existing cases — originally with no known acquisition source
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said the starkest difference to the 2020 outbreaks was the considerable number of young people infected.
Of the 805 active cases in Victoria, 170 are in children aged zero to nine, and 124 are aged 10 to 19.
People aged in their 20s make up 167 of the cases, and 150 cases are aged 30 to 39.
“To have fewer than a quarter of cases over 40 years of age, that’s the effect of vaccination, that’s telling a positive story,” Prof Sutton said.
MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR EASTERN FREEWAY VICTIMS POSTPONED
The State Memorial Service to honour the FOUR police officers killed in the Eastern Freeway tragedy has been postponed due to coronavirus restrictions.
Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Josh Prestney and Constable Glen Humphris were killed after they were struck by a truck on the Eastern Freeway in April last year.
The truck’s driver, Mohinder Singh, was high on a cocktail of drugs when he veered into an emergency lane of the freeway and crashed into the officers and their stationary vehicles.
The Cranbourne truckie was sentenced to 22-years in prison over the crash, which was the greatest single-incident loss of life in Victoria Police’s history.
A State Memorial Service was scheduled for 29 September next month to remember the officers and mark National Police Remembrance Day.
The service had previously been postponed due to COVID-19.
In a statement, the Department of Premier and Cabinet said it was currently in discussion with the victim’s families and is considering a new date.
It said the new date will be announced as soon as it is available.
PARENTS CALL OUT SHAMBOLIC VACCINE ROLLOUT
Parents’ lobby group #VCEWhatsThePlanDan, is calling for urgent priority vaccination queues for year 11 and 12 students.
They also want out-of-hours vaccination sites for students and more access to GP clinics given that some doctors are only offering vaccines to existing patients.
Despite a commitment from the Premier Daniel Andrews, priority access to vaccination for VCE students is still not available and students are either not able to make bookings, or are spending up to seven hours in lines at walk-in hubs.
Read the full story here.
PLEAS FOR ROAD MAP FROM LOCKDOWN
Daniel Andrews on Sunday said lockdown wouldn’t end on Thursday as had been planned but refused to say how low the case numbers would need to be for restrictions to be eased, sparking fears stay-at-home orders could drag on until mid-November, when Victoria is due to reach 80 per cent full vaccination.
Melbourne has now spent 211 days in hard lockdown and the August week-long “circuit breaker” is now in its 26th day.
With 92 new Covid cases recorded on Sunday, Mr Andrews said: “We still have too many cases that are in the community for too long for us to be able to open up.
“We acted early but I’m not here to tell people this is easy, it’s not, it’s bloody hard”.
But the opposition said the state was being held “hostage” to a zero-case strategy, and the mental health harm caused by lockdown was now at alarming levels.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said businesses were in crisis and a road map out of lockdown that was “realistic and full of hope” was essential.
He said this could include reopening municipalities that were Covid-free, 24-hour vaccination hubs and kids back at school when vaccination rates hit 60 per cent.
“This lockdown is six and out for many, but for those that make it through, we need a plan,” Mr Guerra said.
“The state needs to articulate a reopening plan based on national cabinet’s road map and Doherty Institute modelling.”
Mr Guerra said the path out needed to be detailed and even more ambitious than the state’s road map to recovery after the second wave.
“We are on track to have 70 per cent of people with their first jab in mid-October,” Mr Guerra said. “Why don’t we be bold and declare that from Caulfield Cup day and beyond, crowds at race days can be at 50 per cent.”
The Herald Sun believes that Mr Andrews expressed strong support for the national reopening plan during a phone call with Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday.
Mr Andrews said he would make an announcement this week on any changes to restrictions, after receiving advice from the chief health officer.
But when asked how low cases would need to be to ease the current rules, he would only say “as low as we can get them”.
Unlike NSW, the Premier has not announced a plan for returning children to school.
State Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said it was not feasible for the Premier to keep chasing zero cases.
“It is basically holding the whole of Victoria hostage to something which is practically unachievable, and is doing more damage in the meantime,” Mr O’Brien said.
“The amount of mental health harm, the amount of suicide attempts and certainly the number of suicides is going up because of these lockdowns.”
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg previously said another $700m a week would be wiped from the balance sheet, as the engine room of the state’s economy struggled to stay afloat.
“Small businesses are just hanging on right now, they need hope,” he said on Sunday.
“They need to know that the plan agreed at national cabinet will be implemented, so they can plan.”
Mr Frydenberg said he had a good working relationship with his Victorian counterpart, and together they had provided more than $2bn in economic support this lockdown. However, a school holiday cash splash that tourism operators rely on remains in jeopardy.
If Greater Melbourne and NSW remain in lockdown, a whopping $1.9bn is estimated to be lost over the fortnight from September 18.
Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani said a road map and a significant step-change to business support measures was required, if they were to survive this latest setback.
“These current grant programs, however, are sadly not going to save businesses from closures that now seem imminent,” Ms Mariani said.
“Businesses in the visitor economy right across the state are struggling under the weight of this latest lockdown and hope is waning that they will ever recover from mounting losses.”
Father of three Chris Papas said families needed certainty about when students could return to the classroom.
“If the kids aren’t back by the end of term four it is going to be disastrous for their mental health, surely there are some measures the government can put in place,” he said.
STATE’S VACCINE RACE GETS SHOT IN ARM
Vaccine supplies are to be fast-tracked to Victoria as the nation closes in on its first vaccination target.
After weeks of Australia’s Covid vaccines being prioritised for Sydney, which ended on Sunday, Premier Daniel Andrews said there were efforts to speed up the delivery of vaccine scheduled for Victoria.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt also said on Sunday that Australia was “not that far away” from reaching the vaccination targets needed to reopen.
Victoria’s state-run clinics delivered 31,436 Covid shots on Saturday, a 20 per cent increase on a week earlier.
However, Victorian government data shows that although its state-run mass Covid vaccination clinics have provided a similar number of doses to those in NSW, there is a massive difference between the states in doses provided to federally-run primary health clinics.
The 6.5 million doses delivered by NSW clinics is 26 per cent more per head of population than the 5.4 million doses provided by Victoria GPs so far.
After NSW received several hundred thousand extra Pfizer doses to cope with its Covid crisis over the past month, Mr Andrews said Prime Minister Scott Morrison had provided assurances supplies would again be shared equally among states.
The Premier also took a swipe at NSW for allowing weddings and small groups of fully vaccinated people in non-hot spot municipalities to gather outside from mid-September – despite recording 1218 cases on Sunday.
“The national plan is about all of us moving together. Not a national plan for picnics, just quietly,” Mr Andrews said.
Fewer than 2.7 million people are needed to get a Covid-19 dose for Australia to hit the 70 per cent vaccinations marker – and an additional two million need to get the shot to achieve 80 per cent coverage.
“There is real hope,” Mr Hunt said. “We’re not that far away. We can get there.”
New evidence from the National Incident Centre underlines the effect of vaccines, with NSW about to hit the number of infections recorded in Victoria’s second wave – but with deaths at just 10 per cent of the 800-plus fatalities of 2020.
Australia’s drug regulator is expected to give its advice on whether Moderna can be given to people aged between 12 and 17 this fortnight, before a million doses arrive in September.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price welcomed the prospect of increased supplies going to Victorian GPs.
“We certainly have got a lot more capacity to deliver a lot more shots,” Dr Price said.
“Our interest is getting hold of more supply and getting it to every GP who has patients lining up for it.”
Federal Opposition Health spokesman Mark Butler said Australia was approaching a situation where pubs, restaurants and venues would require proof of vaccination.
However, he warned premiers of states without Covid-19 to prepare for a rise in case numbers and hospital admissions when Australia hit its first vaccination target.
OLYMPIC MEDALLIST COPS $5K FINE
Olympic boxing medallist Harry Garside has been fined more than $5000 for breaching Victoria’s coronavirus restrictions – after he attended a party in Mooroolbark on Saturday night.
The 24-year-old Victorian won Australia’s first boxing medal in more than 30 years at the Tokyo Olympics, after clinching bronze at the games.
Garside, who is a plumber by trade, touched down in Melbourne on Friday evening after completing hotel quarantine in Brisbane in the wake of his Olympic triumph.
Read the full story here.
— Additional reporting: Mitch Ryan, Grant McArthur
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Originally published as 73 new cases, Dandenong Hospital added to exposure site list
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