Latest updates
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Housing Minister Richard Wynne will speak to the media at 10am AEDT
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Housing Minister Richard Wynne are due to give the daily COVID-19 update at 10am AEDT.
We plan to have a live stream running. It should be up closer to 10am.
Experts renew calls for constant mask rules to be eased in Victoria
By Michael Fowler
Victoria's compulsory mask-wearing policy could be loosened within a month, but two public health experts argue that the rules around masks should be eased now.
As Victoria recorded its 15th straight day without a new coronavirus case on Saturday, Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said health authorities were not in a rush to make the expected switch to masks being compulsory only in high-risk, indoor settings such as shops and public transport.
Asked if that point would come within a month, Professor Cheng said that would depend on a number of factors. He said Victorians were now accustomed to masks and other restrictions could be eased more quickly if the mask policy remained in place.
"What we're trying to do is step through that cautiously and the order of that really depends on what's easy to do, what restrictions can be relaxed that will be relatively high impact and improve people's lives," Professor Cheng said.
"Masks I think still are things where everyone's got their masks now and people know what to do. By holding that back a little bit means that we can probably open up some of the other things earlier."
No mystery cases in Victoria
By Craig Butt
The number of mystery cases confirmed in Victoria over the past 14 days has dropped to zero, the first time since the very first mystery case was recorded all the way back in March, that Victoria has gone 14 days without any new mystery cases being confirmed.
Regular readers of the blog will be used to seeing the graph above, which we have been updating each day over the past month or so as the mystery cases tally has slowly been driven down.
But the graph below is a new one. It shows how mystery cases have tracked all the way since early March. I have also included the option of changing the y-axis to a logarithmic scale rather than a linear scale, makes the numbers easier to read once they start getting down very low:
The state’s first mystery case (an infection that could not be traced to a known cluster) was announced by the Department of Health and Human Services on March 13, back when there had only been 34 cases in total confirmed in Victoria.
Since then there have been 3762 mystery cases in Victoria, which make up 18.5 per cent of the 20,345 COVID-19 cases that have been recorded statewide since the start of the pandemic.
During the first wave, there was a peak of 79 mystery cases confirmed in the two weeks leading up to April 10 (that’s about six per day).
But there were far more mystery cases during the state’s deadly second wave. The first wave’s record of 79 mystery cases in a fortnight was beaten on June 30, two days before 10 postcodes were plunged back into lockdown because of a flurry of cases that could not be traced to known sources.
At the height of the second wave there were 1181 mystery cases recorded in the two weeks leading up to August 11 (about 84 per day). After that, case numbers - and mystery cases as well - started to come down.
Health authorities have long maintained that mystery cases are the most concerning infections because they suggest the virus is circulating within the community, and mean that there are people out there with COVID-19 who were never picked up by testing.
When the state’s reopening roadmap for reopening was announced in early September, mystery cases took on extra significance because some of the targets for easing restrictions were tied to these cases being driven below a certain threshold.
Melbourne’s step three reopening target was to record five or fewer mystery cases in the two weeks leading up to October 26. This was quite an ask given that the state had met this target one day after the first wave - the record was five in the two weeks to May 3.
But the city did eventually get there, on October 28 - the same day cafes and shops reopened - the mystery cases tally fell to a record low of four. It dipped to two on October 30, fell to one on November 10 and hit zero this morning.
(It’s entirely possible the total number of mystery cases will be revised down further once health authorities go back and analyse previous cases. On Friday afternoon the total mystery cases tally was 4277, but on Saturday it was revised down to 3762. Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said the drop was because a new algorithm was able to form connections between previously unliked cases).
'Surreal that we're not at home': Melbourne relaxes at the wineries for first weekend away
By Rachel Eddie
Wineries on the Mornington Peninsula were bustling at lunchtime on Saturday when residents from greater Melbourne took their first chance in months to go beyond 25 kilometres from their homes.
“We've been slammed since about 11am,” David Lloyd said, overlooking his vineyards at Eldridge Estate which was packed with visitors.
Pheck Miller at the Red Hill Estate on Saturday afternoon.Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui
“I had no idea what would happen today, and just, 'bang'.”
The 25-kilometre barrier, which also covered the Mornington Peninsula, was lifted on Monday along with the “ring of steel” between the city and regional Victoria.
Make that 16 doughnuts in a row
Victoria has recorded its 16th-straight day of no new cases or deaths.
'This will change lives': $5.3 billion social-housing construction blitz
By Jewel Topsfield and Royce Millar
Victoria will pump $5.3 billion into building more than 12,000 homes within four years to tackle homelessness and create construction jobs in the biggest single spend on social housing in the state’s history.
After decades of under-investment, the number of households on the social-housing waiting list in Victoria had ballooned to 48,529 as of September 30, the equivalent of more than 100,000 people.
Housing Minister Richard Wynne: "Without doubt this is the biggest commitment by any state government ever."Credit:Darrian Traynor
Construction of 9300 new social-housing homes – including replacing 1100 old public housing units – will be one of the cornerstones of this month's state budget.
Social housing includes both public and community housing and is provided to people on low incomes, with priority given to those who have experienced homelessness, family violence or mental health issues.
Victoria has the lowest proportion of social housing in Australia. Only 3.2 per cent of Victoria’s housing stock is social housing – about 81,000 dwellings – below the national average of 4.2 per cent.
Victoria wrongly assessed one in eight 'mystery' cases as 515 cases reclassified
By Michael Fowler
One in eight of Victoria's coronavirus 'mystery' cases was erroneously deemed to have come from an unknown source, with 515 cases reclassified on Saturday thanks to a new contact tracing algorithm.
The algorithm, devised by Health Department epidemiologists, combed through old cases and managed to draw links with other cases through factors such as workplaces and shared locations.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng revealed 515 mystery cases have been reclassified.Credit:Getty Images
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said Victoria's 'mystery' case tally since the start of the pandemic had consequently dropped from 4277 to 3762 on Saturday.
He admitted this was primarily due to Victoria's maligned contact tracing system becoming overwhelmed as the second wave peaked at 725 new cases in one day and over 7000 concurrent active cases.
"I think clearly it was a very busy time ... and at the time our focus was on trying to make sure of absolute close contacts and making sure that we tried to control it that way, at that time," Professor Cheng said.
"But now that we've had the luxury of sitting back and developing algorithms to look back through the data, we can start to clean up the data. It's obviously not of any consequence for what happened back then but it is important for us going forward to have a complete and accurate data set to do analyses from."
NSW budget throws another $1.6 billion at 'gold standard' COVID strategy
By Michael Koziol
The NSW government will pump a further $1.6 billion this financial year into its "gold standard" COVID-19 health response, including funds for hundreds of testing clinics to stay open in 2021 and support for the state's sizeable contact tracing infrastructure.
This week's budget will include $500 million for COVID testing clinics, quarantine arrangements and increased pathology testing and contact tracing, as well as $458.5 million to fast track elective surgeries that were delayed to create hospital capacity at the height of the pandemic.
Nurses prepare to conduct COVID-19 tests at Bondi Beach testing clinic in Sydney. Credit:Getty/Lisa Maree Williams
Another $385 million will be spent on more personal protective equipment for health workers, and $20 million is committed to fast track research and clinical trials.
The $1.6 billion started flowing from July 1 and takes to more than $3 billion the amount NSW has spent on its COVID-19 health response.
Sutton trying to join the rest of us on the beers
Bright Brewery appeared to be enjoying a bumper turnout of people as Victorians flocked back to regional Victoria this weekend but sadly chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton wasn't able to join them.
The Brewery, located in the Northern Victorian town, was at capacity and couldn't find a spot for the man who was one of the faces of Victoria's COVID-19 response due to caps on the number of patrons they could allow in.
In a facebook post, Bright Brewery wrote:
"SORRY YOU COULDN’T GET ON THE BEERS, MR SUTTON // Proving that literally all of Melbourne is in Bright this weekend, we had to turn away the Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, twice today! Pictured here with our long-time bar staffer Wayne, Mr Sutton was a great sport when our staff explained that under his own COVID-restrictions, we unfortunately did not have the space to seat him. We’re sorry you couldn’t, in Premier Dan Andrews’ words, “Get On The Beers” with us, Brett - but we hope to see you again once restrictions ease! So the lesson is: it doesn’t matter who you are - if you’re planning to come and visit us, please book ahead! That includes you, Mr Sutton!"
Good morning all
By Roy Ward
G'day everyone and welcome to yet another COVID-19 live blog!
I'm Roy Ward and I'll be joining you today's live blog. Sadly it will be our last daily COVID-19 blog but our coverage of stories, videos and more will continue just as strongly on the website, our dedication Coronavirus pandemic section and our COVID-19 newsletter.
Please feel free to leave a comment on the blog or shoot me a tweet at @rpjward on Twitter.
Enjoy the day to come.
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2020-11-14 20:46:00Z
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