Victoria has recorded its biggest daily increase in new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began with 484 new infections overnight.
New cases have spiked significantly from Tuesday’s figure of 374 and beats the previous record of 428 last Friday.
It takes the number of active cases in Victoria to 3408 and the total number of cases to more than 6739.
Premier Daniel Andrews said two more Victorians had died overnight, with two men in their 90s passing away. He said both were connected to aged care facilities.
The number of Victorians in hospital with the virus continues to rise at 205, an increase of 31 since Tuesday, with 40 patients in intensive care.
Only 97 of the new cases connected to known and contained outbreaks, while 387 remained under investigation.
Since Wednesday last week there has been more than 2600 new cases in the state and the number of Victorians who have died from the virus has risen from 27 to 44.
Mr Andrews said that almost nine in 10 people did not isolate between when they first felt sick and when they went to get a test.
“People have felt sick, they’ve got symptoms, and they’ve kept going shopping, they’ve kept going to work,” he said.
“They have been at the height of their infectivity and they have just continued on as usual.
“The only thing you can do when you feel sick – the one and only thing that you can and must do when you feel sick – is to go and get tested.
“The second challenge is people then do go and get tested – and we’re very grateful for that – but I’m equally saddened to have to report that 53 per cent did not isolate.”
Mr Andrews said it was not about pointing blame or criticism but about confronting the problem.
He said insecure and casual workers with no sick leave to fall back on should call 1800 675 398 as they would be eligible for a $1500 payment while isolating.
“That $1,500 payment is there for people who really have, in their own judgment, no choice but to go to work sick or to go to work while waiting for a test result,” he said.
“We don’t want people to make those choices.
“We want a situation where you’re no worse off but every Victorian is much better off, because you’re not at work, you’re not making that very difficult choice between the health and welfare of your family and the health and welfare of every Victorian family.”
Mr Andrews said the payments would be processed as quickly as possible so that people’s bank balance wouldn’t drive them to make bad decisions.
Mr Andrews said on Tuesday that the situation would have to get worse before it improved and Wednesday only marked the first two-week period of the six-week lockdown for metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire.
“There would need to be a period of relative stability and until you achieve that, any reduction wouldn’t be meaningful,” he said.
“It could be a day, it could be two days where numbers fall only to spike up again.
“It’s too early for us to be talking about new steps, it’s too early for us to be definitive about what the third week and the fourth week look like.
“If we had not put in place the restrictions that are just about to be two weeks old then we would not be reporting 275, or 374 cases, we’d be adding a zero to that number.”
Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton has previously said that all options were on the table, including tighter restrictions if case numbers continued to climb, but he didn’t know when or if they would be implemented.
There have also been calls for Geelong to be included in metropolitan Melbourne’s stage three lockdown with cases climbing from seven to 18 in just a week.
Eight new cases were recorded in regional Victoria on Wednesday.
It comes as Melburnians and people living in the Mitchell Shire will be required to wear masks while out of the house for one of the four permitted reasons from 11.59pm on Wednesday night.
Mr Andrews said those who failed to comply would be hit with a $200 fine.
People with a medical or professional reason, or if it’s not practical, for example when running, will be exempt from wearing a mask.
Professor Sutton said masks to coronavirus were like speed limits to the road toll.
“I don’t know that there would be many who would argue that we shouldn’t have speed limits on the roads because of the importance of protecting everyone in that setting. It really is the same for masks.
“It’s a small constraint on our liberties but it’s a really important one because there is no greater loss of liberty than the loss of your life.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMilgFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC92aWN0b3JpYS9uZXdzL3ZpY3RvcmlhLXNldC10by1icmVhay1yZWNvcmQtd2l0aC00ODQtbmV3LWNvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNhc2VzL25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvM2YzZTViOWQ3NGY4YjE5NGFmMzM5MDZjNmQ0Yjk0ZGXSAZYBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAubmV3cy5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvdmljdG9yaWEvbmV3cy92aWN0b3JpYS1zZXQtdG8tYnJlYWstcmVjb3JkLXdpdGgtNDg0LW5ldy1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy1jYXNlcy9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzNmM2U1YjlkNzRmOGIxOTRhZjMzOTA2YzZkNGI5NGRl?oc=5
2020-07-22 02:48:45Z
CBMilgFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC92aWN0b3JpYS9uZXdzL3ZpY3RvcmlhLXNldC10by1icmVhay1yZWNvcmQtd2l0aC00ODQtbmV3LWNvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNhc2VzL25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvM2YzZTViOWQ3NGY4YjE5NGFmMzM5MDZjNmQ0Yjk0ZGXSAZYBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAubmV3cy5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvdmljdG9yaWEvbmV3cy92aWN0b3JpYS1zZXQtdG8tYnJlYWstcmVjb3JkLXdpdGgtNDg0LW5ldy1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy1jYXNlcy9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzNmM2U1YjlkNzRmOGIxOTRhZjMzOTA2YzZkNGI5NGRl
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