D-Day for Melbourne: Health authorities reveal when the coronavirus capital of Australia will know if savage lockdown is working
- Effectiveness of city’s stage-four lockdown will be known in three to four weeks
- Victoria suffered its worst day on Wednesday, with 725 cases and 15 deaths
- The rate of community transmissions will determine when the state reopens
Health authorities will know in three to four weeks if Melbourne’s draconian stage-four lockdown is working – and whether Victoria must stay isolated from the rest of Australia.
The state suffered its worst day of the coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday, with 725 new cases and 15 fatalities, including Australia’s youngest victim – a man in his 30s.
The rate of community transmissions in Victoria will ultimately determine when the state reopens.
Epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely of Melbourne University told news.com.au that it will take two to three weeks for authorities to gauge the impact of the current lockdown.
‘The models should be able to show whether Victoria is on track to eliminate the virus in two to three months, which is critical information for policy makers,’ he said.
Victoria suffered its worst day of the coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday, with 725 new cases and 15 fatalities, including Australia’s youngest coronavirus victim – a man in his 30s
All states and territories except New South Wales and Victoria had eliminated community transmission before Melbourne’s recent second wave
‘We don’t have that information yet … so we can’t do it accurately yet; we have to see how the case numbers change.’
Prime Minister Scott Morrison last month said Australia is aiming to eradicate community transmission, but said the plan is to suppress cases rather than eliminating them.
New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the situation in Victoria isn’t showing ‘any marked signs’ of improvement.
‘That is certainly influencing us as a government and the government’s decision-making,’ Mr Hazzard told reporters.
‘The results in Victoria have been extremely disturbing to me as health minister.’
All states and territories except New South Wales and Victoria had eliminated community transmission before Melbourne’s recent second wave.
NSW’s daily new cases have hovered below 20, while most of the handful of new cases in South Australia have come from returned travellers in quarantine.
Victoria’s latest figures bring the state’s death toll from the virus to 162 and the national figure to 247.
Of the 15 deaths, 12 are linked to outbreaks at aged care facilities.
The state’s previous record was 723 new cases on July 30, though daily case numbers have been in triple digits for a month.
There are 538 Victorians with coronavirus in hospital – an increase of 82 from Tuesday – with 42 of them in ICU.
Health authorities will know in three to four weeks if Melbourne’s draconian stage four lockdown is working and whether Victoria will stay isolated from the rest of Australia. Pictured: Victorian Premier Dan Andrews
Stage four restrictions for metropolitan Melbourne and stage three protocols for regional Victoria will run for six weeks until September 13
Of the 12 new cases in NSW on Wednesday, just one was in hotel quarantine.
There were two linked to the 105-person Thai Rock Wetherill Park restaurant cluster, two connected to The Apollo restaurant in Potts Point and six associated with the funeral cluster.
One of the new cases was locally acquired with no known source.
Two COVID-affected students from Greenway Park Public School were confirmed in Wednesday’s case numbers following a pupil from Bonnyrigg High School on Tuesday.
Both schools in Sydney’s southwest reopened on Wednesday after cleaning.
The three students are linked to cases who attended the Mounties club in Mount Pritchard, connected in turn to the 46-person funeral cluster.