A man who tried to defy the lockdown at one of Melbourne's public housing towers allegedly bit a police officer while attempting to leave, as residents endured another day of enforced quarantine in their apartments.
Key points:
- Of the towers' 3,000 residents, 53 have been infected with coronavirus
- The police union fears its members, and therefore the public, are at risk and police resources could be better used
- But Victoria's police chief is confident there are "no issues whatsoever" with resources
Nine public housing estates in Flemington and North Melbourne remain in "hard lockdown", with another 16 people in the towers diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past day.
The lockdown means residents cannot leave for any reason.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said a resident had been arrested after trying to fight police when they stopped him from leaving.
"Early on this afternoon we had a 32-year-old male who attempted to leave from one of the towers in Flemington," Commissioner Patton said.
"There was an issue there where that male tried to leave against instructions. A fight occurred where the police were assaulted and that male bit one of the members."
The 32-year-old was likely to face charges for assaulting and resisting police, as well as breaching COVID-19 restrictions, Commissioner Patton said.
COVID-19 cases in public housing towers double
Earlier today, Premier Daniel Andrews revealed 127 new cases of coronavirus had been recorded in Victoria — the state's largest increase in case numbers since the start of the pandemic.
That number includes 16 new cases of COVID-19 in the public housing towers. Another 10 infections recorded in earlier numbers have now also been linked to the towers.
That takes the total number of cases in the public housing estates to 53.
"It's essentially a doubling of the numbers since yesterday," Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said.
On the weekend, Mr Andrews said the towers would be locked down for at least five days. But "detention order" notices delivered to the residents said it would run for 14 days.
Mr Andrews said the length of the lockdown could be reassessed.
"Once all residents are tested we'll have more options based on data, and hopefully that means we can have a different set of rules that are not quite so hard in terms of the hard lockdown that we have put in place," he said.
The Premier also said Foodbank had distributed 3,000 meals, and hundreds of hampers containing food staples, to residents since they had been placed in lockdown.
Another charity, FareShare, had provided 3,000 meals and 4,500 pastries, while several thousand Halal meals had been distributed by Victorian Trades Hall and charity Moving Feast.
"We will continue to work hard every hour of every day over this five-day period, to get to every resident the support that they need, and to get every resident tested," he said.
"That is the real key to giving us options and potentially having a different set of rules once the five days pass."
Housing Minister Richard Wynne said about 400 tests were conducted in the towers on Sunday and that was being "significantly ramped up" today.
Police aim for 'model' coronavirus quarantine response
The police union has complained about what it calls a "hastily put-together operation" to use hundreds of officers to manage and enforce the lockdown.
Yesterday, Victorian Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said he was concerned poor planning could be putting officers — and the general public — at risk.
"If those people become carriers of a virus, because of poor systems in the way that we deal with hotels or the way we deal with commission flats in this case, then we expose the broader community to that incident that's occurring at that location," he said.
"This is where the plan went wrong with the hotel situation — we can't possibly go wrong in this situation."
Mr Gatt said not enough officers were being deployed to meet a requirement that two officers be stationed on every floor of each building — but such a requirement was "overkill" anyway.
But Commissioner Patton insisted police were well equipped to manage and enforce the restrictions at the towers, which are home to 3,000 residents.
He said it was "absolutely a Victoria Police role" to do so, though the Australian Defence Force was being considered for involvement in "other roles".
"We have more than adequate resources to be able to deploy 500 police per day across these nine towers — there are no issues with that whatsoever," Commissioner Patton said.
"It's about helping the residents of these towers get through this extremely difficult period and we will do absolutely everything we can.
"I would love nothing more than to get through this and for this to be held up as a model where people say, 'That was absolutely amazing, the police and the community worked together, they achieved something that was so difficult, and they did it in a peaceful and combined and united manner.'"
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA3LTA2L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNvdmlkLTE5LXZpY3RvcmlhLXBvbGljZS1wdWJsaWMtaG91c2luZy1sb2NrZG93bi8xMjQyNjkwMtIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjQyNjkwMg?oc=5
2020-07-06 08:06:54Z
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