Victorian businesses offered fresh lifeline as new mystery case recorded
There’s been a new Covid scare after residents of a Newport apartment block were told to “stay put” by health authorities. It comes as new exposure sites were uncovered.
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There’s been a new Covid scare after residents of a Newport apartment block were told to “stay put” by the health department on the same day Victoria exited lockdown.
One resident from the Mason Street complex said she received a call from Barwon Health alerting her to the stay at home order on Wednesday night.
The woman said health officials did not provide any further detail and to expect an update on Thursday.
The health department would not provide any detail of the incident and the site was not listed as an exposure site on Wednesday night.
Workers at an IGA on the ground floor said they recieved an anonymous call on Wednesday evening, alerting them a case was in the “nearby vicinity”.
The workers said there had been no communication from the health department.
BUSINESSES OFFERED FRESH LIFELINE
Businesses struggling from the latest Covid-19 lockdown will be thrown another lifeline under a new $400 million support package.
The additional funding was announced as Victoria was freed from its fifth lockdown on Wednesday.
The news came after a mystery coronavirus case emerged in Victoria, hours after eight cases of locally acquired coronavirus were revealed.
The funding will be halved between the state and federal governments.
The package includes a new $85m small business Covid hardship fund and a $156m business continuity fund.
A further $70m will be funnelled into the licensed hospitality venue fund, with $9.8m to help alpine businesses.
The grants will be administered by the state government.
Scott Morrison said Victorian businesses had borne the brunt of the heavy cost of lockdowns that kept the state and Australia safe.
“Together we can and we will recover from this,” the Prime Minister said.
“We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again.”
Premier Daniel Andrews said the package would protect and grow jobs as Victoria’s economy recovers.
Mr Morrison thanked Mr Andrews and state Treasurer Tim Pallas working closely with him and Josh Frydenberg.
“Victoria has gone into a further round of their business supports and we are meeting those costs 50-50 with them, just like we have in New South Wales,” he said.
More than 140,000 Victorians have made Covid disaster payment claims, with almost $79m in income support paid so far.
MYSTERY CASE EMERGES; LOCKDOWN ENDS
A new community case of coronavirus emerged on Wednesday morning, hours after eight cases of locally acquired coronavirus — all primary close contacts — were announced.
The eight cases are all linked to known outbreaks and each was isolating throughout their infectious period.
The mystery case works at the Moonee Valley drive-through testing centre as a traffic controller.
Tracers are now working to establish if any positive cases were swabbed at the testing centre.
The worker was symptomatic on Monday and was tested on Tuesday, before a positive result was confirmed on Wednesday morning.
Two more Tier 2 exposure sites have been added to the state’s growing list.
A positive case attended the Borrack Square Woolworths in Altona North between 5.15pm and 6.30pm on Saturday July 24.
The next morning, Sunday July 25, a case visited the 7-Eleven in Yarraville, located on the corner of Williamstown Road and Somerville Road between 7.05am and 7.50am.
Anyone who visited the sites at these times must urgently get tested and isolate until returning a negative test.
Health Minister Martin Foley said while investigations into the case were in the very early stages, he believed the case appeared to be “low-risk”.
Mr Foley said he understood the “normal risk assessments” would be made, which would see testing site staff likely deemed as primary close contacts and forced to undergo 14 days’ quarantine.
“It’s a pretty big site. We don’t know if he acquired (the virus) there, but as an abundance of caution we’re certainly working on the basis that he did,” he explained.
Chief health officer Sutton said it remained unclear whether the new community case caught the virus from someone getting tested.
He said: “There’s three days to investigate how he’s been out and about”.
He urged people who turned out to get tested at the racecourse site to remain on the lookout for symptoms, especially if they opened their window to interact with people.
More than 35,800 people turned out to get tested on Tuesday.
Mr Foley also said he was happy to sit down with the trucking industry to work through how to “do things better”.
It comes after the Victorian Transport Association reported thousands of truck drivers were crossing the state’s border each day without a permit.
Mr Foley said while he didn’t believe there were huge issues associated with cross-border travel, he would listen to the concerns of the VTA.
He acknowledged while it was an imposition to make truckies get tested every three days, it was a “proportionate imposition”.
NEW EXPOSURE SITES EMERGE
Exposure sites in Frankston have emerged as contact tracers scramble to track down anyone who may have been in contact with the mystery case.
The Moonee Valley racecourse testing worker is understood to have visited a popular Frankston shopping centre on Saturday July 24.
Karingal Hub Shopping Centre on Cranbourne Rd has been deemed a Tier 2 exposure site after the case attended the venue between 11:45am and 12:40pm.
Later in the day the infectious person is said to have visited the Ritchies IGA in Frankston (Tower Hill) on the corner of Golf Links and Hastings Road between 4:10pm and 4:35pm.
Earlier that day he visited United Petroleum Baxter, located at 284 Frankston-Flinders Road in Frankston South between 7:15am and 7:30am.
Anyone who visited the sites must get tested immediately and isolate until returning a negative result
LOCKDOWN ENDS, STRICT RULES TO STAY
As Victorians woke to their first day of freedom, authorities warned restrictions would remain for “months” until most people had been vaccinated.
On Wednesday, Prof Sutton said the current restriction settings – while being reviewed daily – would remain for two weeks.
“We’re not saying you can’t see loved ones or friends, we’re saying please see them outdoors,” he said.
“(Indoors) is really where we see transmission occurring.”
Announcing the end of the state’s fifth lockdown on Tuesday, Premier Daniel Andrews said some form of restrictions would remain until “the vast majority” of Victorians had been vaccinated.
Figures show 40.48 per cent of Victorians 16 or older have had one Covid-19 shot, but just 16.98 per cent have had two.
“I wish we were doing this press conference in a warehouse that was full of tens of millions of doses,” the Premier said. “That is not the case. So yes, some of these restrictions are going to be with us and the risk of further lockdowns will be with us until we get the vast majority of Victorians and Australians through the vaccination program.”
As revealed by the Herald Sun, Victorians can now leave their homes for any reason and travel more than 5km; restaurants, pubs and retailers can reopen and students will today return to the classroom.
But masks remain mandatory indoors and outside, visitors to the home are banned and there will be no crowds at AFL matches or major theatre events for at least two weeks.
The “lockdown lite” restrictions will remain for a fortnight before any further easing is considered.
“Please don’t go and visit mum and dad at their place,” Mr Andrews said. “(Don’t think) ‘no one will know … it will be OK’. No, it won’t. That’s how this virus spreads.”
Despite the home visit ban, brothels and sexually explicit venues will be able to operate with up to 100 patrons.
Opposition spokesman Tim Smith said the rules were “proudly inconsistent”.
“Victorians will be able to visit a brothel but not their mum at home … The Andrews Labor government is really weird,” he said.
In a change from restrictions introduced following previous lockdowns, hospitality venues will be able to reopen for up to 100 patrons.
But industry leaders warned that most businesses who opted to reopen under the strict caps would be operating at a loss.
Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang said traders needed a clear road map as to what level of vaccination was needed for the “authoritarian policy” of lockdowns and restrictions to end.
“The Premier loves to say that ‘he will have more to say about that later’; the reality for many of these small business owners is that there will be no later for them,” Mr Lang said.
A beefed-up business support package is expected to be unveiled on Wednesday, with Treasurer Tim Pallas in talks with his federal counterpart Josh Frydenberg.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Paul Guerra said businesses across the board needed that support immediately.
“As we snap into lockdowns, we need to be able to snap out, and we’re seeing signs of that,” Mr Guerra said.
The Property Council’s Victorian executive director Danni Hunter said an urgent focus was needed to reopen the city.
“Melbourne’s CBD contributes around 7 per cent of the national GDP and 25 per cent of Victoria’s economic output … With every lockdown we take another step backwards,” Ms Hunter said.
Owners of gyms, previously kept closed directly after a lockdown, said they were shocked to get approval to reopen so quickly. Dukes Gym owner Jonathan Quieros said he was expecting a “more staggered opening”.
“We’re excited to get members back in the gym. Nothing beats training in person,” Mr Quieros said.
Prof Sutton said three things – “fast and thorough” contact tracing, lockdown and a commitment to following the rules – allowed the state to take a “greater step forward”.
“With … those components working together we’re on the cusp of containing our second Delta outbreak,” he said.
NSW COVID CRISIS REACHES NEW PEAK
Another 177 new cases of Covid have been diagnosed in NSW as residents in Sydney face several more weeks of strict stay-at-home measures.
Of those cases 46 were in the community for their entire infectious period.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said “it would not have been realistic for the NSW government to make a decision in the next two weeks given where we are today”.
More than 94,000 people got swabbed in the last reporting period.
Lockdown will be extended for another four weeks as the city struggles to contain the highly contagious delta variant.
This means there’s no chance of freedom until August 28. This includes the Blue Mountains, Shellharbour and the Central Coast.
QR CODE PRESSURE ON SUPERMARKETS
The Andrews government has been accused of putting pressure on supermarket employees to enforce Covid compliance of customers in wearing masks and signing in with QR codes.
A leading industry group says they were encouraged to step up their training of staff and Covid compliance checks in meetings with government this week.
Jos de Brui, chief executive of the Master Grocers Association, which is the industry representative for IGA, FoodWorks and Richies supermarkets, says the directive was clear.
“The government was asking for greater compliance checks,” he says.
“We are assisting and encouraging people to do the right thing but we can’t be the enforcers. We’re not the police.”
Mr de Bruin says their staff are doing their best but are not equipped to force customers to comply, nor is it their job.
“We’re being told we have to train our staff at the registers to ask “have you checked in?” and have a QR code available at the station before they can pay,” he says.
A Woolworths spokesman says they’ve been encouraging customers to use the Victorian government’s QR code system for many months and continue to work closely with government authorities on these directives.
Health and Safety Ambassadors have been positioned at the entry of all Woolworths Supermarkets during the recent lockdown. Staff are there to help with QR code check-in, cleaning baskets and trolleys, and are also monitoring customer numbers as needed.
“The wellbeing of the community is our priority and we have extensive COVIDsafe plans in our stores. We ask our Victorian customers to please treat team members and each other with respect as we work through this difficult time together,” they say
Mr de Bruin is asking for supermarket workers to be regarded as frontline workers so they are able to get more immediate access to vaccines.
“We’re keen for our staff to be recognised as essential workers. We are on the frontline everyday and we would like to be regarded as a priority in the same way teachers and health care workers are.”
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