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Victoria has recorded 11 new coronavirus cases with no new deaths overnight.
Metropolitan Melbourne’s 14-day rolling average has dropped slightly to 9.4, with regional Victoria at 0.4.
There are currently 195 active cases in Victoria, the first time under 200 since June 26.
There are 17 Victorians in hospital, one is in intensive care but not on a ventilator.
Six of the 11 new cases are linked to known outbreaks and nine are in metropolitan Melbourne with one in Kilmore in regional Victoria and a further single case is being investigated.
The total number of active cases in regional Victoria is five.
There are 19 active case in healthcare settings. The mystery case tally sits at 12 for metropolitan Melbourne but there are none in regional Victoria.
Aged care has 45 active cases but there are no active cases in disability facility settings.
Of the new cases, one is linked to a family outbreak in Frankston, one to Chadstone Shopping Centre and another linked to a complex case.
ANDREWS ADDRESSES MIKAKOS’ SCATHING ATTACK
Premier Daniel Andrews has refused to discuss any evidence he has given to Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry, calling it “an ongoing process”.
He said the inquiry board could make their own judgment on his evidence in the wake of his former health minister Jenny Mikakos’ scathing comments on Friday morning.
‘TREAT WITH CAUTION’: MIKAKOS’ IN SCATHING ATTACK ON DAN
“I’m not interested about getting into a debate with anyone on these matters.”
He told reporters he had not spoken to Ms Mikakos and said he hadn’t “got the time” to pre-empt Jennifer Coate’s findings on the inquiry.
Mr Andrews said he had confidence in Kim Peak. “Yes I do. I answered these questions at the time. I will wait for the board to hand down their report.”
“The inquiry was not set up for the avoidance of answers or avoidance of questions. I don’t think it’s appropriate that I try to conduct the inquiry form this podium or draft the report from this podium,” he said.
When asked why his phone records had not been provided to the inquiry, Mr Andrews said the inquiry did not seek any of the materials outlined.
“All material that has been sought has been handed up,” he said.
The Premier said he did not believe he was specifically asked for his phone records to be tended.
Mr Andrews said Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp retained his full confidence despite Mr Crisp changing his evidence for the hotel quarantine inquiry.
SHIELDS, FACE COVERINGS OUT UNDER NEW MASK RULES
Premier Daniel Andrews has stressed the importance of wearing masks as protection against coronavirus.
He announced that the government has ordered an extra 1.2 million refitted cloth masks.
From Sunday, October 11, the grace period to switch over from wearing face shields and scarves to fitted masks ends so the public must wear a mask outside their homes.
Prof Sutton said a fitted mask reduces the risk of transmission by half.
Companies manufacturing masks include: Nobody Denim, The Arc Thread Group, Style Print and Australian Defence Apparel, BlueGum and Aquaterro.
When asked if he had confidence in the system, Prof Sutton said: “Yes I do. I accept there will always be gaps and things we need to tighten up ... but any community member who speaks of the mixed messages and inconsistencies is a lesson for us.”
Prof Sutton warned the public against complacency and asked for people to maintain resilience but admitted “this could fail”.
When asked if he would be nervous about opening up at rolling day average of nine, Prof Sutton said: “It doesn’t mean there can’t be a consideration on that day, but we just need to look at what changes can be made with those numbers”.
SUTTON APOLOGISES FOR KILMORE CONFUSION
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has apologised for conflicting advice to isolate in Kilmore: “We are moving to a point that the way we manage small numbers and outbreaks is more comprehensive and cautionary than ever before.”
He reassured the public the risk was low in outdoor queues for testing.
The latest Kilmore case is a casual contact at the cafe and not a staff member.
More than 600 people have been tested in Kilmore in the past three days.
Prof Sutton said the risk in Kilmore was very low but businesses must make a judgment call for themselves about whether to remain open.
Seven active cases, and a total of 12, are linked to the Frankston family cluster.
BOX HILL HOSPITAL OUTBREAK A NEW THREAT
It comes as health authorities scramble to contain an outbreak at Box Hill Hospital in Melbourne’s east before the government decides next week if the city can be freed of coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
Prof Sutton said all staff at Box Hill Hospital were being tested after four active cases were recorded.
The cluster includes three hospital workers and one patient.
“The exact source isn’t clear but all staff are being tested across that entire health facility,” Prof Sutton said.
He said it was a measure of the risk in any health setting and an intensive testing process was crucial.
The chances of Melbourne meeting the threshold to end the stage four lockdown by October 19 are evaporating but Premier Daniel Andrews has hinted some restrictions are likely to ease regardless.
As Mr Andrews foreshadowed a partial relaxing of lockdown measures in nine days, businesses on Thursday demanded he provide more certainty and details about the plan.
With another 11 COVID-19 cases confirmed on Thursday narrowing the chances Melbourne will reach its target to reopen by October 19, the Premier said he could not rule out adding more stages into the road map out of lockdown.
“We will look to make as many changes as we safely can,” Mr Andrews said.
“Whatever we can give back, whatever we can loosen, then of course we will. But safety has to guide us.”
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said businesses needed as much warning as possible to adjust.
“Sydney had more cases than us today and they are open for business,” he said.
“A few hours’ notice is not good enough and is extremely unfair on business people who are desperately trying to stay afloat.”
Shiung Low, co-owner of V Wine Salon in Abbotsford, said he supported coronavirus measures but needed more communication to manage the challenges presented by restrictions.
He said the business had opened in February and had done its best to stay afloat with takeaway while also keeping staff on.
“The October 19 date is a concern,” he said. “We are buying a bunch of supplies and preparing outdoors, if it doesn’t go ahead, that creates issues for us and for our staff we want to roster on.”
Big 4 Holiday Parks chief executive Steven Wright said 80 per cent of regional bookings for the Melbourne Cup Day weekend were people from Melbourne and worth more than $1 million.
“The risk is at the last minute you get told these people can’t come and there’s no time to replace them,” he said.
“For small operators these are mostly family businesses. If your park is just about full and then suddenly everyone is asking for refunds it can be devastating.”
Under the government’s road map, Melbourne must achieve an average of fewer than five new coronavirus cases a day to end stage four lockdown measures – meaning it must have 70 or fewer cases between October 5 and 18 in order to open a day later, as was expected. But just four days into the critical period, the metro area has already recorded 39 cases.
Melbourne will have to record an average of just three cases a day – or 31 cases in total – over the next 10 days if it is to meet the threshold to open on October 19.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Professor Allen Cheng on Thursday raised hopes measures may still be eased, saying the nature of cases will be more important than the raw numbers.
Although recent Chadstone shopping and Kilmore clusters have seen cases climb in recent days, Prof Cheng said he was relatively “comfortable” that cases among people isolating due to known clusters posed reduced threats.
“It is really going to be a day-by-day assessment of the situation,” Prof Cheng said.
“At this stage, the average in metropolitan Melbourne has dropped into single figures and, in some ways, I am a little bit less worried about that figure than I am the unknown source cases.”
VACCINES SHOULD WITHSTAND COVID MUTATIONS
Potential vaccines should be able to withstand mutations to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to “critically important” Victorian research.
Most v accines under development worldwide have been modelled on the virus’s original D strain, more common among sequences published early in the pandemic.
But the virus has evolved to the globally dominant G strain, which now accounts for about 85 per cent of published SARS-CoV-2 genomes.
There had been fears the G strain, with a D614G mutation within the main protein on the virus’ surface, may resist vaccines now under development.
But researchers who conducted investigations with ferrets at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness — the CSIRO’s high-containment biosecurity facility at East Geelong — found no evidence the change would adversely affect the efficacy of vaccine candidates.
CSIRO dangerous pathogens team leader SS Vasan said it was good news for the hundreds of vaccines in development.
“Most COVID-19 vaccine candidates target the virus’s spike protein, as this binds to the ACE2 receptors in our lungs and airways, which are the entry point to infect cells,” Dr Vasan said. “Despite this D614G mutation to the spike protein, we confirmed through experiments and modelling that vaccine candidates are still effective.”
Dr Vasan said researchers also found the G strain was unlikely to require frequent vaccine matching, where new vaccines need to be developed seasonally to combat the virus strains in circulation, as is the case with influenza.
Published on Thursday in online journal npj Vaccines, the study tested blood samples from ferrets vaccinated with Inovio Pharmaceuticals’ INO-4800 candidate against virus strains that either possessed or lacked the D614G mutation.
CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall said the research was critically important in the race to develop a vaccine.
“This brings the world one step closer to a safe and effective vaccine to protect people and save lives,” Dr Marshall said.
It comes as the federal government signed a “final supply agreement” with CSL to manufacture 51 million doses of a University of Queensland vaccine, ahead of large-scale trials of its efficacy.
A combined phase-two and three trial of the vaccine is scheduled to start in early December at more than 100 sites worldwide.
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2020-10-09 00:55:02Z
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