Source: ABCnews
Victoria has recorded 1,638 new locally acquired COVID-19 infections and two deaths.
The deaths of a woman in her 60s from Wyndham and a woman in her 70s from Hume take the toll of this outbreak to 70.
The new infections were found from 77,238 test results processed on Wednesday — a record for the state.
They take the number of active cases across the state to 15,074, which is another record high.
The state is still likely days or weeks away from the peak of new infections, with the turning point expected later in the month.
The Burnet Institute modelling behind the state’s roadmap projects the seven-day average could be as high as 2,900 cases later this month. The average currently sits at 1,436.
There are currently 564 people in Victorian hospitals with COVID-19, of whom 115 are receiving intensive care, including 74 people on a ventilator.
Of the people in hospital yesterday, 7 per cent were fully vaccinated with both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Of the approximately 10,000 new cases recorded in the week to Tuesday, Acting Chief Health Officer Ben Cowie said 7 per cent were fully vaccinated, 15 per were partially vaccinated, and 79 per cent were unvaccinated.
“This is unfortunate, because it’s despite the fact 87 per cent of the cases were eligible for vaccination at the time that they were diagnosed with COVID-19,” Professor Cowie said.
The geography of the outbreak continues to be primarily centred around the north and west of Melbourne.
But the south-east and east have continued a trend of recording more cases each day, with 351 new infections in the south-east and 114 in the east.
A total of 115 new infections were recorded outside of Melbourne, meaning 7 per cent of the cases were in regional Victoria, taking the total to 707 active cases.
“On a positive note, the majority of these have been linked to existing cases,” Professor Cowie said.
They include spread in Shepparton, Ballarat, the Mitchell Shire, Mildura and the Latrobe Valley.
Professor Cowie said “of note”, there were 11 new cases in the Mount Alexander Shire in central Victoria, spread across two households, with no known source of transmission.
No positive cases have emerged from the Royal Children’s Hospital after its cancer ward was declared a COVID-19 exposure site yesterday.
A parent visited the hospital for three days and later tested positive, prompting the hospital to order families to quarantine on the ward.
The chief executive of the hospital, Bernadette McDonald, said all children and staff had so far returned negative results. She said no staff had been furloughed as they were all wearing full personal protective equipment.
There were 36,672 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered in state-run hubs, with thousands more delivered through doctors and pharmacies.
About 83 per cent of Victorians aged over 16 have received at least one dose of vaccine and around 54 per cent are fully vaccinated.
The state remains committed to lifting lockdowns once 70 per cent of the population has had both doses, a target expected to be hit later this month.
Minister says vaccination rates for NDIS recipients ‘not good enough’
The state has announced $5 million will be spent on boosting vaccination rates amongst people with a disability.
Minister Luke Donnellan said as of September 30, more than 71 per cent of Victorians on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) aged 16 and above had received their first dose of a vaccine.
Residents in disability care have been eligible since the start of the vaccine rollout under phase 1a, and all people with a disability have been able to get a vaccine since phase 1b began in March.
Mr Donnellan said Victoria was slightly ahead of the national average, which had about 67 per cent of NDIS recipients vaccinated by the end of September.
“So we’re doing slightly better, but it’s simply not good enough,” he said.
People with disabilities will be able to get vaccinated at any state hub without a booking from October 8.
Ten “dedicated disability vaccination pop-up centres” sites will be set up across October in local government areas of concern, Mr Donnellan said.
As part of the push, there will be “disability-friendly” drive-though hubs and a low-sensory site at La Trobe University.
The Commonwealth was initially responsible for NDIS participants and residential care.
“This is very much about us stepping in,” he said.
Opposition push to reopen hospitality faster
The Victorian opposition is pushing for a faster return to dine-in hospitality, in its own plan on reopening the sector released today.
The government’s roadmap allows outdoor dining at the 70 per cent full-vaccination target and indoor dining when the state hits the 80 per cent target, which is due to happen in November.
The opposition is proposing a return to indoor dining at the 70 per cent threshold, with capacity only limited by a density quotient of one person per 4 square metres inside, and one person per 2 square metres outside.
The government’s roadmap uses the same density limits, but imposes overall caps on patrons which increase as the vaccination rate climbs.
The Shadow Minister for Liquor and Gaming, Steph Ryan, said the current roadmap was not viable for many businesses.
“Not being able to have people indoors means that many aren’t opening at all. Many venues in the CBD or suburbs don’t have outdoor space,” she said.
“I’m concerned that many hospitality businesses just aren’t going to survive under the government’s roadmap.”
Meanwhile, research from the Property Council of Australia has shown the September office occupancy rate in Melbourne’s CBD was just 6 per cent of what it was prior to the pandemic.
That figure has fallen from 45 per cent in May 2021.
Dani Hunter from the Victorian branch of the Property Council said it was going to be a long road to recovery for businesses in Melbourne’s CBD.
“The point that this survey makes is we are going to have to work pretty hard to get everyone back into the office and back into the city, and one office worker supports five other jobs, so it is incredibly important that we make a concerted effort to attract people back to the office and back to the city,” she said.
More than three quarters of the people who responded to the Property Council’s survey said they did not expect to see an increase in CBD office occupancy in the next three months.
Victorians stranded in NSW able to return home
From today, thousands of Victorians who have been stranded in locked-down parts of New South Wales will be able to apply to return home.
Victoria has recorded double the number of infections than its northern neighbour every day for more than a week now.
The “extreme risk zones”, mainly in Sydney, have been downgraded to “red zones” under the state’s traffic-light border permit system, allowing people to apply for a permit to quarantine at home upon their return.
All previous red zones across the rest of NSW and the ACT have been downgraded to orange zones, allowing anyone to move freely around Victoria once they have returned a negative test result.
The Victorian Ombudsman is currently investigating the state’s border permit process after receiving dozens of complaints about strict border closures.
