As Victoria is set to end its lockdown at midnight on Tuesday 27 July, the state recorded 11 new cases of locally-acquired .
According to health authorities the cases identified in the past 24 hours to midnight had all been in quarantine for the entirety of their infectious period while one new case is an overseas traveller that has remained in hotel quarantine.
Aside from the overseas case all community transmitted cases were linked to current outbreaks.
While the state prepares to exit lockdown, fears arise that increasing numbers will lead to an extension but no official decision has been made.
The new COVID-19 cases were recorded through 32,000 tests while more than 17,000 doses of the vaccine were administered since yesterday.
Currently, Victorians can only leave their home for five essential reasons and shopping and exercise is restricted to a five-kilometre radius around a person’s home whereas face masks are still mandatory at all indoor areas outside of a person’s own home.
At the same time, New South Wales has recorded 141 new local COVID-19 cases, of which 38 individuals have reportedly been infectious in the community prior to being tested.
Meanwhile, a woman in her 30s from Sydney’s CBD passed away from COVID-19 and did not have any pre-existing health conditions. A second COVID-19 related death for a western Sydney woman in her 70s was recorded at Campbelltown Hospital.
“If anybody thinks this is a disease just affecting older people, please think again,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said stressing her disappointment towards the protests.
“Millions and millions of people across our state are doing the right thing, and it just broke my heart that people had such a disregard for their fellow citizens,” she said.
When asked by a reporter about restarting jobkeeper Berejiklian answered:
“I appreciate that some people are feeling frustrated, but that is no reason, absolutely no reason, for those actions yesterday. No excuse, I’m sorry.”
“We fought really hard to get the financial support that we have available, and not only for individuals who are doing it tough, but also for businesses who are doing it tough, and also in those five local government areas in particular who were providing local support through their community leaders, in addition to the financial support that is already available.”
Finally, in terms of exempting vaccinated people from lockdowns in the hope that that will persuade more people to get vaccinated quickly she also gave a negative response adding that the government won’t be able to consider easing restrictions for people that have taken the jab until a larger proportion of the population is vaccinated.
“Because we don’t have those higher rates of vaccination, that would still be too great a threat on everybody else who hasn’t been vaccinated, and not everybody yet has had the opportunity to be offered the vaccine, and that health advice has now recently changed,” she said.
In South Australia, Premier Steven Marshall stated that the Transition Committee will be meeting again tomorrow to discuss exiting the lockdown on Tuesday night while three new cases have been recorded.
The state appears to be on the right track for a lift on restrictions some rules will remain “to make sure we can get as many people back to work as safely as possible” he explained.
“The last thing we need in South Australia is a situation where we have to go back into a lockdown situation. We don’t want to lift the restrictions too quickly and then have a relapse in South Australia.”
“I can’t see us going back to three per four square metres in the short term here in South Australia… But we do want to get people back, we want them back on construction sites, we want them back in their hotels, in their calf in their restaurants in South Australia. We want retail opening up and we want to do that as safely as we possibly can, so the Transition Committee will meet today, meet again tomorrow and more to report in the coming days.”
