Victoria’s battle to stop a second wave of coronavirus cases from spiralling could take months, with predictions from one expert that the state may need to return to a hard lockdown for eight weeks.
In the last six days the state has seen new daily virus cases in the double digits, with a growing number the result of community transmission.
The worrying upswing saw state Premier Daniel Andrews announce over the weekend that lockdown measures restricting the number of indoor and outdoor gatherings would be returning.
He also said authorities would go door-to-door to make sure the new rules were being followed, with police to patrol virus hot spot areas.
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According to Victorian Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton, state authorities were now closely monitoring 1000 close contacts of 125 active cases.
Professor Sutton predicted that high numbers of new cases will continue this week.
“I think we always see cases that reflect transmission that was happening a week or two weeks ago, so even though we’re stepping up very early, the kind of actions that we know should mitigate the risk, we’ll probably see an increase in cases or at least we’ll see steady numbers for some days to come before hopefully we can turn it around,” he said today.
Melbourne University epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely told The Age the state’s current lockdown measures would only have a 10 per cent chance of eliminating the virus due to the number of community cases.
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Professor Blakely said a hard lockdown lasting up to eight weeks was the only way to stop COVID-19 spreading in Victoria.
“The discussion that should be happening behind closed doors – and it’s a really unpleasant one – is whether there is a strong case for Victoria to go back into lockdown,” he said.
“Then all of Australia will have eliminated the virus, or be close to eliminating it, and we can go back to normal life. Otherwise this will happen again and again.”
But despite the growing concern over coronavirus in Victoria, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said it was too early to say whether it was a second wave.
“If this outbreak escalated and we had several hundred cases, that would be the sort of situation where I would be extremely concerned,” he said.
“But there is no official definition of a second wave, it’s a concept where the outbreak is such that you don’t think the public health measures can easily control it in the short term.
“At the moment, I have great confidence in the Victorian response, they are responding very effectively and we need to watch things over the next few days to see how it happens.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMirAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS93b3JsZC9jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy9hdXN0cmFsaWEvY29yb25hdmlydXMtdmljdG9yaWEtc3RhdGUtbWF5LW5lZWQtdG8tZ28tYmFjay10by1oYXJkLWxvY2tkb3duLWV4cGVydC13YXJucy9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzFhZGJiNThlYmJlMTE0ZTdmYWRjYTBhOGJjOGM5Mzkx0gGsAWh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLm5ld3MuY29tLmF1L3dvcmxkL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzL2F1c3RyYWxpYS9jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy12aWN0b3JpYS1zdGF0ZS1tYXktbmVlZC10by1nby1iYWNrLXRvLWhhcmQtbG9ja2Rvd24tZXhwZXJ0LXdhcm5zL25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvMWFkYmI1OGViYmUxMTRlN2ZhZGNhMGE4YmM4YzkzOTE?oc=5
2020-06-22 12:45:43Z
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