Acting Premier James Merlino has hinted Melburnians may face an extended lockdown with the decision hanging on these key factors.
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A longer lockdown is appearing increasingly likely amid grim warnings that Victoria’s growing Covid-19 outbreak could “get worse before it gets better”.
Eleven new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Monday, taking the outbreak that plunged the state into a seven-day lockdown to 51 infections.
Health authorities warned they were “neck and neck” with the fast-moving superstrain, as tracers grapple with hundreds of exposure sites and thousands of close contacts.
Acting Premier James Merlino refused to rule out extending the lockdown, due to end on Friday.
He said that decision would depend not just on case number but the “type of cases”, including whether they were in a high-risk setting and linked to other known infections.
“There is no doubt the situation is incredibly serious,” Mr Merlino said. “The next few days remain critical … this outbreak may well get worse before it gets better.”
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said the lockdown was being reviewed on a “day by day” basis but that the latest cases, particularly in aged care, were concerning.
“We are neck and neck with this virus, and it is an absolute beast,” Prof Sutton said. “It has been a rapidly moving virus and the transmission that has occurred in those high-risk settings has been very substantial.
“We could get reassuring news … but we’ve had some stuff come to us in the last 48 hours that’s very concerning.”
Business leaders called for greater clarity on when restrictions would ease, saying the best support the government could offer would be to allow them to trade.
“Business wants as much notice as possible that the lockdown will finish on Friday, but even no notice period is preferable to remaining closed,” Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Paul Guerra said. “When this lockdown is lifted, we need to snap back to the conditions we had on Monday of last week to give Victorian business a decent start out of the blocks to economic recovery.”
Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said it seemed clear the lockdown would last “a lot longer” than seven days.
“It’s a very concerning day for Victorians. The pretty clear message is that we can’t look forward to restrictions being eased on Friday,” he said.
Hundreds of shoppers have been forced into isolation with the Brimbank Shopping Centre on the corner of Neale and Station Roads in Deer Park, now listed as a Tier 2 exposure site. Anyone who was at the centre on Friday must get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.
Anyone who went to the food court on that day is considered particularly high risk – with that area considered a Tier 1 exposure site – and should get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.
Prof Sutton refused to rule out the return of the “ring of steel” to separate Melbourne and regional Victoria, were the lockdown to be isolated to the metropolitan regions.
But police association secretary Wayne Gatt told the Herald Sun he was against the ring of steel being reinstated.
“It provided a deterrent on major freeways but left opportunities on other access roads for people who wanted to breach the regulations to do so quite easily,” Mr Gatt said.
“To put further police at checkpoints would dramatically affect our ability to manage other responses and bring an already strained force to an unsustainable level.”
With no confirmed cases in the regions, country areas have called for restrictions there to be eased. “It (the ring of steel) is not out of the question, it’s not locked in,” Prof Sutton said.
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2021-05-31 19:00:46Z
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