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Daniel Andrews hits out at 'unacceptable' scenes from crowded St Kilda beach - SBS News

Premier Daniel Andrews has urged Victorians to stay the course for a few more weeks after "unacceptable" scenes at a crowded St Kilda Beach, as the state records eight new coronavirus cases and three deaths.

Seven News footage showed crowds gathering - many without masks - at the beach on Friday night, while a journalist was approached by several people and kissed on head as he spoke live to camera.

Mr Andrews said he'd heard of similar "unacceptable" and "very disappointing" behaviour at other beaches and locations in the state.

He again urged people not to do anything between now and 19 October - when the government hopes to further ease restrictions - to jeopardise everything Victorians have sacrificed in recent months.

"No one has the right to break the rules and potentially put at risk everything that good, decent, law-abiding Victorians have created, have built. All of their sacrifice has to be worth something," he told reporters on Saturday.

"It's just not smart, and it's not fair, and it's not lawful."

Mr Andrews said he'd spoken with the chief police commissioner and officers would be out at beaches throughout the weekend.

He warned that spending time at the beach without a mask or social distancing now could mean that people won't be able to go to the beach for quite some time.

"It just doesn't make any sense - so please, my message to every single Victorian, we're so, so close," he said.

"Let's all us do everything we can to follow the rules, to play our part, to get this job done, to defeat this second wave."

With Saturday's announcement of eight new coronavirus cases and three deaths, the state toll reached 805 and the national death count hit 893.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said numbers were continuing to trend in the right direction, with the vast majority of cases linked to known outbreaks.

Melbourne's 14-day rolling average now stands at 12 cases and there have been 11 cases with an unknown source in the fortnight up to Wednesday.

"It is due to the fantastic sacrifices of everyone that we're at this point that we're at," Professor Sutton said on Saturday.

He acknowledged that people were fatigued and wanted to get outdoors, but it wasn't huge sacrifice to wear a mask and stick to the allowed group size while out.

On Friday, it was confirmed a cluster of cases at The Butcher Club inside southeast Melbourne's Chadstone Shopping Centre had grown to 11 and included a family.

The premier challenged Victorians to consider the potential impact of a cluster in such a large, busy setting.

"If we were to open up now, just as our modelling tells us ... it will be many hundreds of cases," Mr Andrews said on Friday.

The average new daily case count needs to drop below five and there must be fewer than five mystery cases per fortnight before authorities further ease Melbourne's lockdown restrictions.

Meanwhile, authorities responsible for reviewing the state's hotel quarantine program have tried to reassure the public ahead of international inbound flights resuming.

"We want Victorians to feel very, very assured the accommodation program is a very, very focused one," Attorney-General Jill Hennessy said.

An inquiry into the program has been told the first iteration in March was responsible for the state's second wave of COVID-19.

Health authorities confirmed that one hotel quarantine staff member thought to have acquired the virus in an aged care facility was, at the same time, working shifts at the Grand Chancellor Hotel.

There have not been any active cases related to the workforce running hotel quarantine for at least four weeks.

There are 107 people currently in hotel quarantine, of whom 55 are frontline workers.

Flights into Melbourne are not expected to resume until after the hotel quarantine inquiry delivers its findings, due by 6 November.

People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others. Check your jurisdiction's restrictions on gathering limits.

If you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms, stay home and arrange a test by calling your doctor or contact the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080. News and information is available in 63 languages at https://sbs.com.au/coronavirus

Please check the relevant guidelines for your state or territory: NSW,VictoriaQueenslandWestern AustraliaSouth AustraliaNorthern TerritoryACTTasmania

With AAP.

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2020-10-03 02:00:49Z
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