Premier Daniel Andrews is absent from a coronavirus update for the first time in four months, as chief medical officer Brett Sutton says Victorians have earned the right to "enjoy ourselves now" while taking the necessary COVID-19 precautions.
Follow Saturday's events as they unfold.
Key events
Live updates
By Simon Smale
A word about those with families overseas
Hello,Everyone is complaining about state borders being closed and how sad they are about not having been able to see their families, and it's perfectly understandable and devastating. However, no one is talking about those who have families overseas and how they will not be able to see their loved ones until end if 2021, if not 2022, and the uncertainties around it. It would be nice to get a bit if recognition too!-Grabi
Hi Grabi,
You're absolutely right and it's a big issue for a very large number of Australians.
By Simon Smale
By Simon Smale
What about yesterday's cases
Hi there, a short press conference is a good press conference BUT did the CHO update us on the two low positives reported yesterday? Were these confirmed as positive and if not will they be taken off our rolling average?-Kelly
Hi Kelly,
He didn't, but did say the re-testing takes between 24 and 48 hours, and that the expert panel will meet later today.
By Simon Smale
Increase in the number of recovered cases
There has been an increase in the number of recovered cases.
Mr Foley said this was due to a new determination on what constitutes a recovered person.
"The Chief Health Officer has put in place a rule that people in this situation will be reclassified as recovered after 28 days from their diagnosis," Mr Foley said.
"Ongoing data review has uncovered 67 cases that met this classification and these cases you will see reflected in the update on the website this morning."
Professor Sutton added to that, saying the following.
"In terms of those recovered numbers, really, there were thousands of notified cases for July and August.
"A small percentage of those — for reasons that they have changed address or phone numbers — were not contactable but it has been over 28 days since they were initially notified and are considered recovered.
"The great majority of people recover within 10 days so 28 days is a reasonable cut to reconcile those numbers."
By Simon Smale
How did Martin Foley start?
So did he start with “everyone right to go?” I need to know!!-Presser priorities
Sadly not, for those of you banking on that.
"Good morning and thanks for coming along," Mr Foley said.
He's his own man.
By Simon Smale
Overall numbers from Victoria
Here's a full list of the numbers that matter from the Victorian press conference.
- 71 active COVID-19 cases, all of which are in Melbourne
- 1 new case, which is a low positive result in someone from Stonnington who is in hospital
- 19,850 new test results
- 3 healthcare workers who are active cases
- 2 unknown source infections in Melbourne in the past 14-day period
- 2 people in hospital, neither of them in ICU
By Simon Smale
Press conference is over
And the shortest press conference in living memory (well, not quite) is over.
Short but sweet, can't argue with that.
Additionally, we can only apologise for lack of a YouTube stream for that presser.
We'll get onto our video team and try to find out why that didn't happen.
Believe us, we don't like getting abused by you all in the comments, so it was far from being our choice.
By Michael Doyle
Daniel Andrews did not give Foley any tips for the press conference
After 120 straight days of press conferences, you may have noticed Daniel Andrews was not speaking today.
I think we made a bit of a deal about it yesterday.
Anyway, Mr Foley says he was essentially thrown into the deep end today (not his word, my words) by telling reporters he did not ring the Premier for any advice on how to deal with these press conference.
"I hope the Premier is enjoying a hard earned day off with his family," he said.
On a side note: I hope everyone on our blog is having a lovely day as well.
By Simon Smale
Regular testing in the workforce will be a feature going forward
Mr Foley was asked whether standard testing was taking place at the moment in some industries.
He said that it was already happening in various high risk industries and for healthcare workers.
He said it would likely be a feature of working in some industries moving forward, given how infectious the virus is.
By Michael Doyle
Should Melbourne residents head back to work
Professor Sutton said if the current trends of low transmissions continue, people in Melbourne could slowly start returning to work.
He said more time was needed to ensure the downward trend of new infections continues.
"I guess it always depends on what the next couple of weeks shows and if the trends we are seeing sustains," he said.
"Obviously we have only gone to this much more open movement in recent days."
However, Professor Sutton said it would not happen quickly and returning to offices would be staggered and a slow process to minimise risk.
By Simon Smale
There's potential that there's a change workforce forever: CHO
Professor Sutton says that he's not a social anthropologist, but he said it was realistic to think that there could be a permanent change in the numbers of people working from home.
He said there are a lot of benefits to people working from home, such as not having to go on public transport or lifts, which he described as a "pinch point", although there did have to be an economic viewpoint as well.
"There is an economic activity by returning to work especially here in the CBD, and that should be a consideration, but it has to be safe and steady for sure," Professor Sutton said.
Mr Foley was also asked about working from home being a more permanent arrangement going forward.
He said that there was an economic factor in having people staying away from high density working areas and that this needed looking at in the budget.
By Simon Smale
Is the CHO concerned about behaviour over the long weekend?
Victoria has a long weekend this weekend, and the CHO was asked if he was concerned about people's behaviours.
He said that he wanted people to be outside and enjoying the sunshine.
"I think the great majority of Melbourne people know what to do. Some may be a bit liberal in their behaviour. I think it is appropriate for people to enjoy the outdoors.
"I would always urge people to do the right thing and the key things is not being out when unwell and obviously wearing masks but outdoor is a low risk environment and I want people to enjoy the sunshine, the company of others but to do it within those rules and if that is how people go about it, it will be a great day and I think we will feel the uplift with a public holiday where people are getting out and about."
By Simon Smale
Is the CHO concerned about people sitting in cafes without masks on?
A few of you have brought this up today.
He said that it was up to businesses to ensure that people did the right thing, as well as others taking personal responsibility.
"We are asking businesses to do the right thing stop the density quotient is one person per two square metres outside. That is a reasonable precaution but the individual has to do the right thing as well.
"If you're facing away from each other, the risk is much less. [It is] 18-20 times less risky outdoors.
It does not become so much of an issue to be in reasonably close proximity to other people but everyone should be aware of what they need to do and you should cancel that appointment, cancel that booking if you are unwell."
By Simon Smale
Is it safe to go and see grandparents yet?
Professor Sutton said it was safe to go and visit people, such as grandparents yet?
"We're saying you can go to another house within 25km. Use it as one household of two plus dependence. That is a reasonable thing to do," Professor Sutton said.
"We are doing that at a staged approach very incrementally because we do not want to see wholesale movement of people where it suddenly turns up in the numbers two or three weeks from now and we have a dozen cases that are right across Melbourne."
By Simon Smale
Should people be nervous about going outside?
Professor Sutton was asked about whether people should be going out and how they should be feeling.
He said that we "deserve to enjoy themselves now" but that he could not speak for people's anxiety about going out.
"We got to this incredible point where case numbers are very low and we have days of literally no true cases so we should go out, with all the precautions we talked about, but we need to enjoy our lives after three months of really constrained activity.
"We know how to protect ourselves. It is doing the right thing, wearing a mask, keeping a distance, making sure that if there are people unwell around us, we are not interacting with them.
"We need to remain vigilant because there are countries in Europe that were in a celebratory mood just a few months ago that are going through the worst times right now and that is because, as long as this virus is around in the world, we need to be vigilant and make sure we are on top of it continuously.
"That is our job but people can go about their lives with those change behaviours and I think people are doing that."
By Simon Smale
Low positive tests
Professor Sutton is updating us about the numbers and what a low positive test is.
He said the low positive was from someone who has had several previous negative tests,
"You can get these indeterminate results or only a weak signal on the test and they are a normal part of testing," Professor Sutton said.
"The likelihood is fewer true cases are being detected and these low positive will become more prominent but the expert review panel looks at the pathology results, exactly the details of those results, reference laboratories are offered rerunning the tests to give a definitive answer and they get results within 24-48 hours so we should have an answer on this after the panel meets today."
By Simon Smale
Here is the Victoria press conference
There are currently 71 active cases in Victoria, all in Metro Melbourne.
The one positive test was a low positive test from someone who is already in hospital.
It is being investigated as a possible false positive.
There were 19,850 tests conducted yesterday.
"All of which continues to show that the sacrifices and hard work that Victorians have made in getting us to the point where we can open safely," Mr Foley said.
By Michael Doyle
Watch today's Victorian press conference
By Simon Smale
Europe's 'dire' situation
Hi Simon, As Europe is now reaping what was sown during a deregulated and definitely not socially distanced summer, what lessons can Australia learn as we head towards our own summer?-Lazy Days
Hi, Lazy Days
The CHO Professor Sutton said yesterday that Europe was heading into a "dire" situation and that Australia was looking at heading into a similar situation a few months ago.
"They are coming down to hard choices of lot down and the same impossible choices we faced a couple of months ago," Professor Sutton said.
"There are systems that are getting overwhelmed there in the health services with 70 plus per cent of ICU beds with COVID patients.
"We have avoided that. It is a fantastic result for Melbourne but I do worry about all of the resurgence across many, many parts of Europe, and some hit particularly hard. France and Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, Czech Republic in particular."
As far as what we can learn, we don't really have the same issues, with international travel severely curtailed.
It is a case of remaining vigilant though, which is another thing that Professor Sutton and Daniel Andrews touched upon yesterday (and over the past few weeks).
By Simon Smale
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTEwLTMxL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWF1c3RyYWxpYS1saXZlLW5ld3MtY292aWQxOS1sYXRlc3QtdmljdG9yaWEtc3V0dG9uLzEyODM0MDI40gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyODM0MDI4?oc=5
2020-10-31 01:21:00Z
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