Scott Morrison clamps down on coronavirus-spreading truckies

Scott Morrison is set to introduce a code for truck drivers to stop them spreading coronavirus across state borders.

The Prime Minister wants truckies to be tested and follow stricter rules after a freight worker brought the deadly disease from Victoria to New South Wales in June.

The employee went to a work party at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, south-west Sydney on 3 July, sparking a cluster of which has grown to 56 cases.

Mr Morrison said he is working with state governments to stop that happening again.   

‘We also agreed and adopted a freight movement protocol, and it particularly relates to the movement of large freight across border and the protocols needed for the drivers and how they act and how often they’re tested and all of these types of things,’ he told reporters after a National Cabinet meeting on Friday morning.

‘All states and territories and the Commonwealth agreed that they needed greater enforcement and it needed to move towards a code, and that’s where we’ll be moving in the days ahead to formalise that further.

‘And the enforcement of that will obviously be put in place by the states and territories who have those resources.’

The details of the code are yet to be released. 

As 300 new cases were recorded in Victoria on Friday and seven in NSW, Mr Morrison said the National Cabinet agreed to continue pursuing a ‘suppression’ strategy’ rather than an ‘elimination’ strategy which requires harsher lockdowns.

‘There will always be cases that come because Australia has not completely shut itself off from the world,’ he said.

‘To do so would be reckless, but we want no community transmission, where the vast majority of states and territories have been at now effectively for some time. 

‘And that’s certainly where we want to get back to in Victoria and New South Wales, and that’s where our efforts are focused.’

It came as Victoria reported a record six deaths, largest daily total of any state throughout the pandemic after New South Wales recorded five on 28 April and Victoria also recorded five on Thursday. 

All of Friday’s deaths were elderly people in aged care. The state’s death toll is now 55 and the national toll is 138. 

Residents line up outside the Royal Melbourne Hosital for coronavirus testing in Melbourne

There 7,405 cases in the state with 206 Victorians in hospital including 41 in intensive care. 

Premier Daniel Andrews today announced ADF soldiers will door-knock residents who test positive to check they are isolating.  

‘If for whatever reason you don’t answer the phone, then ADF personnel will be knocking on your door,’ he said. 

Premier Andrews warned more deaths would rock the state.

‘For every thousand people that are positive each day, there will be many hundreds that finish up in hospital and they will be many who die,’ he said.

But he said he has not been advised to extend or tighten Melbourne’s six-week lockdown which began on 9 July. 

Pictured: Police and army enforce mandatory face masks while walking around the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne on Thursday