Summary
- Victoria’s five-day, hard lockdown has ended and greater Melbourne is no longer considered a COVID hotspot. Residents are now free to travel more than five kilometres from their homes and the four reasons for leaving home have been revoked, but some restrictions on public and private gatherings remain.
- Victoria has recorded no new local COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row, although one new case has emerged in hotel quarantine. NSW recorded no new local cases for the 31st day in a row on Wednesday and Queensland recorded its 41st straight day of zero cases.
- Debate rages among scientists over whether a nebuliser really was the source of Victoria’s Holiday Inn outbreak, as the Andrews government has suggested. Meanwhile, the man blamed for spreading the virus by using the nebuliser is pushing for an independent review of his case.
- More than 35,000 of Sydney’s frontline workers will roll up their sleeves to receive a COVID-19 vaccine within just three weeks from Monday.
- Visit our new vaccine tracker, which shows how many people around the world have been vaccinated so far and which countries are leading the charge.
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Graph: Victoria’s daily testing numbers
The headline number in the Victorian Health Department’s daily COVID-19 update is always the number of new locally acquired cases, but the daily testing numbers were a key factor in ending this week’s lockdown.
Premier Daniel Andrews said Tuesday was “the biggest testing day we have ever had in the last 12 months”. Almost 40,000 Victorians were tested on Tuesday, 5000 more than on any other day during the pandemic.
The testing figure was still impressively high yesterday - 30,261 Victorians were tested.
And here’s a look at how local cases have been tracking since the beginning of the year:
Victoria records no new local cases, one in hotel quarantine
Today’s numbers are in and Victoria has recorded no new local coronavirus cases, although one has emerged in hotel quarantine.
More than 30,000 people were tested yesterday.
Almost 40,000 Victorians were tested on Tuesday, 5000 more than on any other day during the pandemic. Health chiefs said the strong testing numbers fuelled confidence the virus had not spread widely in the community, as was feared when the lockdown was announced last Friday as the highly infectious British variant of COVID-19 spread to more people connected with the Holiday Inn outbreak.
In photos: Melbourne’s CBD the morning after lockdown
Our photographer Scott McNaughton is in Melbourne’s CBD this morning where cafe owners are setting up tables and chairs and commuters are making their way back to their offices.
Melbourne, opening for business again.Credit:Scott McNaughton
Degraves Street.Credit:Scott McNaughton
Commuters outside Flinders Street Station.Credit:Scott McNaughton
Office workers outside Flinders Street Station.Credit:Scott McNaughton
‘It’s like time travelling’: Jim Courier praises Australia’s COVID response
As we mentioned earlier, Australian Open crowds return to Melbourne Park this morning as the state emerges from lockdown.
Former world No. 1 and Open commentator Jim Courier, who spent 14 days in quarantine in a Melbourne hotel, says he would enjoy an extended holiday in Australia once the grand slam ends on Sunday night if it weren’t for his wife and children back home in the US.
“I have a wife and two young boys, so I’m desperate to get home. If I didn’t, I would probably stick around and have a holiday,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW a short time ago.
“It’s like time travelling to be here honestly, it’s incredible.”
Jim Courier, Australian Open commentator.
Of life in the US with surging coronavirus cases and deaths, Courier said: “It’s been hard. It’s been brutal.”
He described his time in Australia as a “more memorable experience”, saying there are few times at his stage in life where he gets to experience things for the first time.
Of his time in quarantine, Courier said: “I did fine because I knew I was going to be in there for 14 days. The people who I think struggled were the players who expected to be able to get out for five hours [but] their planes came in with COVID and they couldn’t do it. I was fine. I actually got pretty fit. Maybe I need to do it every year after New Years.”
Front pages of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
In today’s Age exacerbated Victorian business leaders are calling for clarity about future lockdowns in the state.
Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra said this week’s lockdown left a “bad taste” with his members in Victoria who had endured longer shutdowns in 2020 than retailers in any other state.
“We can’t continue to run businesses like a light switch; turning off and then on again, so this needs to be sorted out,” Mr Zahra said. “So we’re advocating strongly for a national framework, that would at least be consistent.”
‘More lockdowns than Rocky movies’: Businesses reeling after latest Victorian shutdown
By Erin Pearson
The lockdown is over and kids are heading back to school, but Victorian businesses are reeling this morning.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer, Paul Guerra, says this week’s lockdown “knocked a lot of businesses just completely out of the park”.
“No-one saw it coming and then all of a sudden we’re in lockdown,” Mr Guerra told the Today show.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra.Credit:Wayne Taylor
“[In] Victoria we’re nudging towards more lockdowns than Rocky movies. That’s not a good thing for anybody in this state. It destroys confidence and destroys ability to get going.”
Mr Guerra urged Victorians to get out and support businesses with the Labour Day weekend and then Easter just a matter of weeks away.
“We know it will continue to be bumpy until a vaccine is fully rolled out. We will live with a virus for a while. Let’s wrap our arms around each other support the local businesses, support each other and as we get confidence let’s get on and being one Australia again.
“Businesses are waking up today, dusting themselves off as you said, breathing a sigh of relief. We’ve just got to get on with it now, but we can’t keep having brick walls thrown up in front of businesses as we try to recover.”
$2.3b in household spending lost or postponed in Victorian lockdown: Ai Group
The Australian Industry group believes some $2.3 billion in household spending was lost or postponed during Victoria’s hard lockdown.
“Businesses will only cautiously welcome the end of the latest Victorian lockdown given the ongoing possibility of future snap state closures and continuing quarantine failures,” said Ai group’s Victorian boss Tim Piper.
“It is clear that testing and tracing were the keys to resolving this potential outbreak, and not the lock-down which was disproportionate to the risk.”
All retail shops were closed during the five-day lockdown.Credit:Wayne Taylor
Cara Devine, manager of Melbourne bar Bomba which reopened at midnight as soon as the lockdown ended, says it’s been a particularly hard week for casual workers.
“People in casual jobs, nothing has been given to them for this lockdown, so five days off work could mean that they can’t make their rent this month and I think that needs to be addressed at some point,” she told radio station 3AW.
The state’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says there are no guarantees Victoria won’t be plunged into a ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown again.
‘Catastrophic’: Cafe owners counting the cost of lockdown
At Prahran’s Reverie cafe, in Melbourne’s inner-east, this morning the croissants have just come out of the oven, but chef Pierrick Boyer is counting the costs of the five-day lockdown.
Boyer says he lost $20,000 over the last three days. “Because we had to pay for the cost of food, labour - and also the minute warning, it wasn’t great,” he told the Today show.
Pierrick Boyer in Prahran.Credit:Simon Schluter
“Last minute we had to cut the roster. We had to close all the stores for the last three, four days. Catastrophic.”
Now we wait: 3400 Victorians in isolation for 14 days
By Rachael Dexter
The hard lockdown may have ended, but thousands of people potentially exposed to the virus as a result of Victoria’s Holiday Inn outbreak are still self-isolating. We won’t be completely in the clear until next Friday when the incubation period will end for the majority of those people, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says.
Here’s a quick reminder of the numbers involved in containing the Holiday Inn outbreak in Melbourne, courtesy of the Department of Health:
- There are about 3400 people in isolation right now.
- There are 59 household and primary close contacts of people infected with the virus.
- There are now more than 40 public and private exposure sites.
- There are now 1312 primary close contacts linked to exposure sites.
- All 10 primary close contacts identified at Glenroy Central Kindergarten have tested negative.
- 83 of the 87 primary close contacts at the Goodstart Early Learning Centre also in Glenroy have also tested negative. The remaining five results were expected by the end of Wednesday.
- 103 of the 130 primary contacts linked to two mental health facilities in the northern suburbs have since tested negative, with the rest expected soon.
- 279 of the 340 primary close contacts connected to swimming pools at Oak Park and Pascoe Vale have also tested negative.
- Most of the 138 primary close contacts linked to the Queen Victoria Market have been tested. Their results were expected by the end of Wednesday.
Remember, all those who are considered a primary close contact are required to stay in isolation for 14 days, regardless of their initial test result.
New rules after lockdown in Victoria
Victorians are embracing life after lockdown, once again, this morning. Residents can travel more than five kilometres from their homes. Schools are reopening. Shops are reopening. But masks are still mandatory in indoor public places and there are restrictions on gatherings and home visitors.
Here’s a quick summary of the new rules:
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2021-02-17 21:32:00Z
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