On the third day of Stage 4 restrictions for Melbourne, case numbers reached 725 new cases with 15 deaths – the deadliest so far.
Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews said 164 of the new cases are linked to known outbreaks and 561 are still under investigation.
The 15 deaths included one male in his 30s (Australia’s youngest death), three males and one female in their 70s, three males, three females in their 80s. 3 males, one female in their 90s. The majority of the deaths, 12, can be linked to aged care. The new deaths bring Victoria’s death toll to 162.
Premier Andrews clarified some of the rules, including that of intimate partners who are allowed to visit each other. He said that during these visits “the rules apply to you as if you both lived in that premise”. That means that the curfew applies, including rules around shopping and 1-hour exercise distance limits.
Regarding surgeries, Premier Andrews announced that elective surgery other than for category one patients is on hold along with the most urgent of Category 2 patients.
“We can’t have a situation where we are making the sickest patients wait longer because we are treating wholly worthy and important conditions, but not necessarily time-critical conditions,” he said.
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As part of the government’s efforts to limit movement, childcare is no longer access to a number of families in an effort to drive down the numbers.
“What I can say though is there will be a further permit system as simple as possible, a simple process, but if you are a permitted worker, regardless whether you are working in person or from home and you attest that there is no-one else in your household that can look after your children you will be able with that very simple permit to access child care,” Premier Andrews said.
“I know that that will mean that many people who have been using child care and rely upon child care will not be able to do that, these rules, I should stress, also apply to kinder and they will essentially apply to primary school students attending school and being under the, basically doing remote and flexible learning in a supervised environment outside their home.”
Childcare permits would be made available, however Premier Andrews said that the number of children in childcare would only be a fraction of those currently there and be offered to those who can prove that there is no second person available in their households.
Premier Andrews spoke of the importance of getting the workforce down to as low as possible. “It may vary from workplace to workplace and there are discussions going on literally as I stand here now and there could even be variation. In fact, I think there will be variation between beef and lamb, poultry and seafood,” he said
“We’re going to get these numbers down so across-the-board will be as close as we can to two-thirds of their normal output, two-thirds of what they would otherwise be doing, that’s what we’re going to try to achieve.”