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Victoria faces further Covid restrictions while other states improve

Author
Newstalk ZB / news.com.au,
Publish Date
Mon, 22 Jun 2020, 9:44AM
A new list released by the Victorian government shows how many cases have been reported in each local government area. Picture: AAP/James RossSource:AAP
A new list released by the Victorian government shows how many cases have been reported in each local government area. Picture: AAP/James RossSource:AAP

Victoria faces further Covid restrictions while other states improve

Author
Newstalk ZB / news.com.au,
Publish Date
Mon, 22 Jun 2020, 9:44AM

Victorians have been issued a warning and advised to avoid travelling to and from six local government areas where coronavirus outbreaks have occurred until the source of community transmission has been identified.

On Sunday, the Victorian Government identified Hume, Casey, Brimbank, Moreland, Cardinia and Darebin as the focus of current COVID-19 outbreaks as the state’s number of active cases reached 121. The areas cover large parts of Melbourne’s west, northwest, north and southeast.

Now the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee has “strongly discouraged” travel to and from those areas while the state prepares to reimpose some restrictions.

The committee is the key decision making body for health emergencies and is comprised of all state and territory chief health officers and is chaired by the Australian Chief Health Medical Officer.

Nineteen new positive tests were recorded in the past 24 hours. Health Minister Jenny Mikakos announced Sunday that the state’s infectious total has reached 1836 cases, of which 121 remain active.

The 19 new cases follow rises of 25, 13, 18 and 21 cases over the previous four days.

The AHPPC said as of midday, a total of 7460 cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Australia. Of the newly confirmed cases in the past seven days, 83 per cent were reported in Victoria, 29 of which of which were acquired overseas and detected in returned travellers in quarantine.

The remaining 87 cases were believed to be a result of community transmission.

Opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen said there was still a long way to go in tackling the virus.

“Until this virus is defeated everywhere, it’s not defeated anywhere,” he said.

On Saturday, a ranked list released by the Department of Health and Human Services showed how many cases had been reported in each local government area since the beginning of the pandemic.

Melbourne led the way with 133 cases, followed by Stonnington, south east of the CBD, with 96, and Banyule, north east of the CBD, with 95.

Other hard-hit areas included Hume, Mornington Peninsula, Monash and Frankston.

The list also showed where the active cases were reported, including 23 in Melbourne, 9 in Brimbank and 8 in Hume.

“Of the total 1817 cases, there have been 1517 in metropolitan Melbourne and 239 in regional Victoria,” the department said in a statement.

“The total number of cases is made up of 968 men and 849 women.”

Victoria was yesterday forced to reimpose some COVID-19-related restrictions after the state suffered its worst day of new cases in more than two months.

Twenty-five new cases were reported on Saturday, with 14 linked to known outbreaks.

Premier Daniel Andrews warned that individual suburbs showing “significant community transmission” could be placed in local-level lockdown if necessary.

He said the new cases included “large family outbreaks” where the virus was spread among people in a household, and then to others in the community.

“I want to make it really clear that we have seen some families who have not done as they have been asked,” he said.

“We have seen some families who perhaps through a sense of frustration and their hope that this is over, they have pretended that it is.”

From midnight Sunday, household gatherings will be restricted to a maximum of five guests, and public gatherings will have a limit of 10 people. The planned easing of restrictions for pubs and restaurants has also been deferred.

The new rules will stay in place until midnight on July 12.

Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said Victoria had recorded more than 100 new cases over the past seven days and the reimposed restrictions would “ensure COVID-19 does not get away from us”.

“The message is clear. Don’t take this disease lightly, stay home, don’t go to work if you can work from home, don’t visit friends and family, don’t go on holiday,” he said.

While there is a spike in Victoria, four other states and territories are now essentially COVID-19 free.

Tasmania has joined South Australia, Northern Territory and the ACT as having zero active cases.

The ACT first reached zero known active cases on April 30. It recorded one new case four days later before returning to zero for most of May. It confirmed another new case on June 7, returning to zero known active cases on June 17.

SA first reached the milestone on May 16, but 10 days later recorded one new case. It returned to zero on June 4.

The NT has had no known active cases since May 21.

The Australian death toll remains at 102, with confirmed virus cases since the initial outbreak topping 7400 on Friday.

Active cases are calculated by taking total case numbers and deducting recovered cases and deaths.

Despite a positive picture emerging from these four areas, nationwide there has been a rise in the number of active cases to 412 after months of steady declines.

There were 2306 active cases of COVID-19 on April 19 but the numbers fell every week as recovered cases outnumbered new ones.

However, this all came to an end on Sunday when the numbers hit a low of 380.

Active cases nationwide rose to 382 on Monday, 389 on Tuesday, 398 on Wednesday, 412 on Thursday, according to figures compiled by the federal government.

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