Victoria bans workers from returning to the office

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has banned white-collar workers from returning to their officers and threatened fines for any boss who ignores the rules.

He has also urged workers to dob on their bosses if they are told to come back into work.  

Mr Andrews said that police will be checking offices to make sure employers do not breach the order which lasts until the end of June. 

He said: ‘There will be spot checks and things like that. If we had a business that was essentially ignoring or seeking to ignore the clear advice and the orders… I think it wouldn’t be a matter of a spot check, I think a staff member or somebody would probably ring up and indicate that they are not comfortable with this.’

He added: ‘This is an absolute requirement. If you have been working from home, you must continue to work from home. There is no option but to do this.’

Victoria recorded seven new cases of the virus on Thursday, including pupil in Melbourne’s northwest whose school has been closed.

Mr Andrews said public transport in the city was 18 per cent full but he wanted this figure down to 15 per cent. 

‘If everyone tries to get back to office blocks and end their working from home arrangements we’ll simply have too many people in close contact that will spread the virus,’ he said.

‘That will cause enormous challenges and could potentially lead to a second wave. That’s what we’re trying to avoid.’

From Monday, the obligation for employers to keep their staff working from home will now be included in the Chief Health Officer’s directions.

It means businesses could be fined for not enabling staff to continue working from home.

‘I don’t think we’ll get to that,’ Mr Andrews said.

Almost 6,000 Victorians have been fined for breaking coronavirus restrictions, triple the total of any other state. 

There were seven new COVID-19 cases recorded in Victoria on Friday.

Three cases were discovered through routine testing, two were people in hotel quarantine after returning from overseas and two are still under investigation.

It brings the state’s total number of cases to 1634 after a case was removed from the tally because of a data issue. About 70 cases remain active.

A school in Melbourne’s northwest has closed after a student tested positive to coronavirus, a week after a teacher was also confirmed to be infected.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said Keilor Downs Secondary College will be closed for cleaning after a student tested positive to COVID-19.

‘The student was probably infectious on-site on the 26th of this month and was notified yesterday,’ he told reporters on Friday.

Keilor Downs College, in Melbourne’s north-west, was shut for cleaning on Friday after the student returned a positive test result on Thursday 

The student is associated with a family cluster announced on Thursday.

Professor Sutton said there is no evidence of a link between the student and the staff member who tested positive last Friday, as the teacher had no exposure to the school site.

However, a St Albans Secondary College student and six students at Taylors Lakes Secondary College have been identified as close contacts of the infected student, who attended a VET class while infected.

Those students, as well as any other known contacts, will enter a 14-day quarantine but their schools have not closed.

Professor Sutton said a mobile testing site will be established in Keilor Downs.

‘This student has acquired it from a broader family group, but how that family group acquired it is under investigation,’ he said.

‘It might indicate that there are some low levels of transmission in or around Keilor Downs.’  

The infection comes after a teacher at the school tested positive last week. There is no evidence of a link between the student and the staff member. Pictured: Principal Linda Maxwell informed parents, students and staff of the teacher’s diagnosis in a Facebook post on Tuesday