Victorians still flouting self-isolation as state records 450 new cases, 11 deaths - The Age

More than 100 Victorians who should be in self-isolation could not be found when Australian Defence Force personnel knocked on their doors on Thursday, Premier Daniel Andrews has revealed.

After reporting 2735 new coronavirus cases since Sunday, Victoria recorded 450 new cases on Friday and 11 deaths.

Mr Andrews said health teams and ADF personnel knocked on the doors of 1150 Victorians on Thursday to ensure those people were self-isolating properly.

The vast majority of those people were at home, he said, but 150 could not be found.

"They have been referred to Victoria Police," Mr Andrews said.

"Of those 150 people, [there] will be a percentage not doing the right thing. A much large percentage, I hope, will be able to convince police they had a perfectly good reason not to answer the door when ADF and public health officials knocked."

Health teams and ADF personnel have carried out more than 5000 spot checks on people who should be in self-isolation since July 22, and a total of 500 people who did not answer their doors have been referred to police.

The spot checks conducted on Thursday were the "biggest single-day effort since the program began", Mr Andrews said, "and that number will only increase as we move beyond simply doorknocking".

Last week, the Premier revealed that more than one in four people infected with the virus were not at home when doorknocked by authorities. Since then, the state government has barred people with the virus leaving their homes for exercise.

Nearly 1000 healthcare workers currently have the virus, with the Premier imploring Victorians to follow lockdown restrictions "to protect themselves, but also to protect our dedicated healthcare team".

"To date, there are 1527 confirmed cases in healthcare workers. That's 139 more than yesterday. And there are, currently, 911 healthcare workers who are active cases," he said.

More nurses than doctors are catching the virus, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said.

"That, I think, relates to the closeness of interaction that nurses are engaged in with their care provision," he said.

Victorian case trend 'relatively flat', should drop in two weeks: Sutton

There are 607 Victorians in hospital with the virus, including 41 in intensive care.

A woman in her 50s, two men in their 70s, three men and three women in their 80s, and two women in their 90s died overnight.

Seven of 11 deaths reported on Friday were connected to aged care, Mr Andrews said.

Professor Sutton said Friday's figures were "reasonable in terms of how it's been in recent days", after Wednesday's record high of 725 cases and 15 deaths.

"I think it is important to make the point that we have seen fluctuations. We've seen very significant ups and downs with numbers. That can occur with batching of results from our laboratories. But the trend overall is that we're kind of sitting at 400 to 500 cases a day. That is relatively flat over the last week," Professor Sutton, who returned to the podium after several days off, said.

"We certainly don't hang on a single day's result as being indicative too much. We're looking at those five-day averages, seven-day averages, in terms of how things are going."

Professor Sutton said he would expect to see trends in case numbers change in about two weeks.

"Crystal ball-gazing is not a particularly useful exercise," he said.

"Having seen stabilisation in numbers, that's a positive. Again, it will go up and down on a day-to-day basis, but within two weeks I would expect it [to change]."

Special consideration for all VCE students

Meanwhile, Victorian Education Minister James Merlino has announced all VCE students will be given special consideration for their ATAR scores.

Previously, special consideration has been decided on a case-by-case basis.

Mr Merlino said "every single VCE student" will be individually assessed and any adverse impacts from COVID-19 will be reflected in their ATAR ranking.

In previous years, Mr Merlino said, a student who received special consideration due to a long-term illness, or significant event in their life, might have had their VCE grades improve from a C to an A.

"It'll be individually assessed. Every student is different. We'll work it out at a variety of ways," he said.

Teachers will be asked to rank students according to their performance now, and if it were not for COVID-19.

"The message to every single student is that, 'You will be individually assessed. You will be at no disadvantage when you step into the VCE exams at the end of the year'," Mr Merlino said.

Business restrictions a 'moveable feast': Andrews

Mr Andrews was also pressed on his government's approach to rolling out stage four restrictions on businesses after a number of industry groups complained about a lack of consultation and heavy-handed limitations.

"[This is] certainly one of the greatest challenges of doing something never been done before, there is no how-to guide here, there is no rule book or playbook for this," he said. "It is genuinely very challenging."

The Premier said rules in place now could be amended down the track.

"We are engaging and will continue to engage," he said.

Get our Morning & Evening Edition newsletters

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMikgFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL3ZpY3RvcmlhL3ZpY3RvcmlhbnMtc3RpbGwtZmxvdXRpbmctc2VsZi1pc29sYXRpb24tYXMtc3RhdGUtcmVjb3Jkcy00NTAtbmV3LWNhc2VzLTExLWRlYXRocy0yMDIwMDgwNy1wNTVqamYuaHRtbNIBkgFodHRwczovL2FtcC50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL3ZpY3RvcmlhL3ZpY3RvcmlhbnMtc3RpbGwtZmxvdXRpbmctc2VsZi1pc29sYXRpb24tYXMtc3RhdGUtcmVjb3Jkcy00NTAtbmV3LWNhc2VzLTExLWRlYXRocy0yMDIwMDgwNy1wNTVqamYuaHRtbA?oc=5

2020-08-07 02:21:00Z
52780982729566

Bagikan Berita Ini