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Andrews declines to comment on poll support for eased restrictions
By Rachael Dexter
The Victorian Premier isn't giving any weight to a new Roy Morgan poll we wrote about earlier in the blog today that showed there was now majority support from Victorians to lift a number of stage four restrictions immediately such as the five kilometre rule, the ban on visiting family and dining indoors at cafes and restaurants.
Across all three questions there was more support for lifting the restrictions now than two or three weeks ago, with the strongest reaction registered for the travel rule – with 61 per cent of Victorians now in favour of it’s removal, up 11 per cent from two weeks ago.
"I don't comment on polls, good or bad," Mr Andrews said.
While he acknowledged most people weren't enjoying lockdown measures, he maintained it was all still necessary.
"We can't pretend it isn't real," he said.
"You can't shortcut this, you can't sort of cheat your way to COVID-normal."
Regional Victorians encouraged to holiday at home, even if borders open
By Rachael Dexter
The Victorian Premier has asked people to holiday "at home" in their home state, even if borders open for regional Victorians due to low COVID-19 numbers.
Today The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that regional Victorians may be able to travel to Sydney and Adelaide before they’re allowed into Melbourne.
The South Australian government will today consider opening its border to Victorians from regional areas, where no community transmission of coronavirus has been reported in the past fortnight.
Premier Andrews said the idea made "perfect sense", but had not had any discussions with other premiers yet to confirm plans.
"Well it makes perfect sense, if you can travel from Mildura to Orbost based on the fact that they're both communities with very low virus, if any then it makes sense that you can travel what is essentially a pretty arbitrary border," he said.
"I know it's a bit of emotive - 'why can you go to another state but you can't come to Melbourne?' and vice versa, [but] the issue is that's travel between communities that are linked by one thing at least and that is that there's low virus."
But the Premier said he would hope regional Victorians would holiday in the state to help with economic recovery.
"Do that if you have to, holiday in Victoria, I'm kind of obliged to say that but it's also true," he said, laughing.
Queensland border to stay closed until after election
By Lydia Lynch
Queensland's border will remain closed to most of NSW until after the state election on October 31, Deputy Premier Steven Miles has confirmed.
The 28 days of zero community virus transmission in NSW that Queensland demanded before reopening the border was reset last Friday even though health authorities believed they had linked the case to a known outbreak.
The Queensland government has eased border restrictions to allow residents from select border towns in NSW to enter Queensland. Credit:Getty
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said genome testing of the western Sydney man "indicates that he has a type of genome sequence that is linked to [the Liverpool Hospital cluster]".
However, NSW Health had not been able to find "a definitive source or interaction" that caused the transmission and it would be up to Queensland health authorities to determine if they still considered the case not to be linked to the known cluster.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young confirmed it would still be treated as a mystery case and the border clock was now at seven of 28 days.
"The nationally agreed-to discussion was that it needed to be linked within 48 hours and we are beyond that time frame now," she said. "So it is about easily linking a case."
Dr Young said the trigger for a border opening with NSW would be reached on October 22 if no unlinked cases of COVID-19 were found before then.
But the earliest Queensland would actually open the border would be on November 1, the day after the Queensland state election, Mr Miles confirmed.
"It is only today that we have expanded that border zone, let's see how that goes, clearly there are still active cases in Sydney," he said.
"The real test there is how easily [cases] can be linked and if you can't link it within 48 hours then it is difficult to know what other risks were about."
The confirmation borders would stay closed through October came as no new cases were detected in Queensland and the border bubble with NSW was extended further south.
Andrews confident lessons from hotel quarantine 1.0 have been learnt
By Rachael Dexter
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is confident the lessons from mistakes made in the first iteration of hotel quarantine have been learnt, in the face of questioning over a story broken by The Age today quoting a healthcare worker who said she feared the practices of sub-contracted staff could lead to further outbreaks that could trigger a third wave of the virus in Victoria.
Here's a taste of the that defence from the Premier:
Journalist: Are you confident that we have learnt from the mistakes that were made the first time round and those mistakes are not being perpetuated in that environment?
Premier: Yes, I am.
Journalist: What gives you that confidence, given what we have read in the papers today?
Premier: Well, I have got advice. People provide me advice and they put their name to it which is a very important thing.Mr Andrews said while he was confident that hotel arrangements were fine, he wouldn't rule out that changes wouldn't happen again.
'Transition' to new hotel quarantine arrangements occurring: Andrews
By Rachael Dexter
Mr Andrews said workers were taken off their shift mid-way through as part of a "transition" process.
"There is a transition to a new set of arrangements that is unfolding," he said.
"I can't provide you any further details than I have."
Thunderstorm asthma and hay fever warning for Victorians
By Rachael Dexter
Amidst the warnings for coronavirus, Victorians have also been warned about hay fever and thunderstorm asthma with increases of springtime pollen.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said that between October and December the high level of rye grass and other pollens, combined with thunderstorm conditions, meant it was likely there would be a high likelihood of thunderstorm asthma risks.
"As some people may remember on November 21 in 2016, we had a very large epidemic of asthma," he said.
He called on anyone at risk of thunderstorm asthma to speak to their GP as soon as possible to get an action plan in place.
"If you haven't seen them for a little while, it may be worth going back to make sure the
medication you are on is appropriate," Professor Chengsaid.
Professor Cheng said high pollen warnings would be issued through the Victoria Emergency app.
Anyone with more severe hay fever symptoms than usual, or anyone who is in doubt if their symptoms are hay fever or coronavirus related, should come forward for a COVID-19 test.
More coronavirus detected in Anglesea wastewater testing
By Rachael Dexter
A second wastewater test in the Great Ocean Road town of Anglesea after COVID-19 has detected COVID-19 traces for the second time this week.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said this meant it was likely that the COVID-positive person was an actual resident of Anglesea and not just someone who had passed through.
"This could mean that there is someone with active infection in Anglesea but it could mean there is someone who has recovered from infection who is in Anglesea and we can't tell the difference from testing," he said.
Professor Cheng made it clear that the viral fragments were found in sewage, not drinking water.
"There is no reason to boil water," he said.
Professor Cheng called on the Anglesea community to continue coming forward for testing.
"There is a pop-up clinic at the Anglesea Town Hall at McMillan Street that will be open from 11:00am to 6:00pm today and 10:00am to 6:00pm each day until at least Sunday," he said.
Melbourne shopping centre cluster leads to family outbreak
By Rachael Dexter
A cluster of cases linked to Chadstone Shopping Centre has seeded a family outbreak in Frankston, according to Victoria's Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng.
So far there has been eight cases linked with Chadstone's fresh food precint, including the Butcher Club, which has now led to a household outbreak in Frankston.
Professor Cheng said anyone who spent time at those stores between September 23 and 28 should get tested but said the stores were clean and "perfectly safe" to visit now.
There is a drive-through testing clinic set up at Chadstone Golfers Drive and another will open up tomorrow at the shopping centre.
"At Frankston there is a pop-up clinic at the Peninsula Aquatic Centre. There is no exposure site in that area but obviously for those who have symptoms in Frankston, if you could come forward for testing, that will help us find the cases trace contacts," he said.
Victorians urged to be patient with restriction easing
By Rachael Dexter
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has pleaded with Victorians to be patient with the gradual easing of restrictions, saying that holding out a while longer could lead to very low COVID-19 figures for all of next year.
"We're confident we'll be able to build a COVID-normal Christmas, a COVID-normal summer, and a virus at such a low level that we can sustain that over the long term," he said.
"That may even be for the majority, or indeed the entirety of 2021.
"I think the vast majority of Victorians are determined to have a very different 2021 when compared to 2020, and that is all about making sure that we get these numbers low, open up, steady, safe and stay open, and keep those numbers low."
Victorian active cases drop below 300
By Rachael Dexter
The total number of active COVID-19 cases in Victoria has dropped to 289 from 305 yesterday, according to Premier Daniel Andrews who has just started his daily briefing.
The last time Victorians had fewer than 300 active cases was June 29.
As reported earlier there have been 15 new cases of COVID-19 recorded in the past 24 hours, and two deaths. Eight of today’s 15 cases are still under investigation according to Mr Andrews.
Mr Andrews said both deaths were linked to aged care, and included one female in her 70s and one female in her 90s.
The total number of active cases now includes 135 linked with aged care outbreaks (down from 147 yesterday), and 45 healthcare workers (down from 46).
There are now only three active cases in regional Victoria.
There are now 38 Victorians fighting the virus in hospital, including six in intensive care. Three of those in ICU are on a ventilator.
There is one just one active case linked with disability settings.
Yesterday 14,709 tests were carried out, after 17,937 the previous day.
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2020-10-01 02:20:00Z
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