Victorian authorities are weighing up reimposing stay-at-home directions for coronavirus hotspots across Melbourne's north and south-east, as the state's sharp rise in cases begins to hit interstate employment.
Key points:
- Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the Government was giving "active consideration" to the move
- The surge in Victoria has seen Queensland add more locations to its list of declared COVID-19 hotspots
- It also appears to have withdrawn quarantine exemptions for some interstate workers
The local government areas of Hume, Casey, Brimbank, Moreland, Cardinia and Darebin have been identified as coronavirus hotspots by the Victorian Government in recent days.
On Monday night, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the Government was not "ruling anything out".
"If the numbers keep tracking in this way in these particular hotspot areas we'll have to consider options like going back to the stay-at-home direction that we had in place for a number of weeks earlier in the year," she told ABC Radio Melbourne.
She said the idea of "very localised" restrictions, which might be applied to local government areas or even individual suburbs, was under "active consideration" due to the pockets of accelerated coronavirus transmission.
Ms Mikakos also urged all Victorians to remain vigilant, and discouraged people from taking the message that if they were not in the six hotspots, the risk of coronavirus transmission was low.
Two Melbourne schools — Brunswick East Primary School and Keilor Views Primary School — are closed after a confirmed case of coronavirus was identified in a student at each school.
The schools will close for at least three days to allow for cleaning and contact tracing.
"Further investigations will be undertaken by DHHS [Department of Health and Human Services], the school and DET [Department of Education and Training] to identify whether any staff or students are required to self-isolate," the Education Department said in a statement.
Spike in cases hits plans for interstate work
Australian actor Georgina Haig was looking forward to flying to Queensland on Monday to start shooting a film this week.
Because she is based on the Mornington Peninsula, which until recently had no active coronavirus cases, the production company had been able to organise a partial exemption to the state's border restrictions.
Under the plan, she would be tested for coronavirus on arrival and self-quarantine for two days or so until those results were known.
But on Saturday, as Victoria plunged into its fourth straight day of double-digit coronavirus case increases, she got a call from the production company telling her the exemption permit had fallen through.
The Mornington Peninsula Shire, which is now listed as having one active coronavirus case, had been added to Queensland's list of declared COVID-19 hotspots.
"I would have had to isolate for two weeks if I was going to travel to Queensland and unfortunately the production couldn't afford to hold off shooting for two weeks due to locations that they'd booked and all the rest, their only option was to replace me," she said.
The news was disappointing for Haig, who knew the Mornington Peninsula on the south-eastern fringe of Melbourne was not among the suburbs designated as a "hotspot" by the Victorian Government, even if it had now made the list for Queensland.
"I just wanted to know how the states were defining hotspots, I guess, and what had happened to include my home area in that," she said.
Queensland Health has been contacted for comment, but on its website includes 36 Victorian local government areas as designated COVID-19 hotspots in its latest list, which took effect on Sunday.
Haig said she understood that Queensland authorities had to put the health of their state first, but hoped state governments would develop more nuanced risk assessments during the pandemic.
"If they could be more specific about travel bans, potentially, rather than blanketing whole states or whole areas … potentially allowing exemptions for places that have zero cases or low cases, it might just allow more workers to travel," she said.
Migrant communities welcome extra help
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said authorities would "redouble their efforts" to reach culturally and linguistically diverse communities, with officials to hold roundtables with community leaders.
The six Melbourne hotspots include many different ethnic groups, including members of the Indian, Turkish, Lebanese and Italian communities.
Adel Salmon, from the Islamic Council of Victoria, said the messaging must be targeted and clear.
"Producing the material that is in these different languages may make the information more accessible," he said.
Nurcihan Ozturk, of the Turkish Women's Recreational Group said it was particularly difficult for elderly migrants who had poor English skills to keep up to date with the constantly changing restrictions.
Pushpa Jayakody, a Sri Lankan community leader, said the information on social gatherings needed to be reinforced with the community.
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2020-06-22 22:20:38Z
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