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Victoria has recorded zero cases of coronavirus for the 14th day in a row and no new deaths, bringing the 14-day rolling average to zero and marking a milestone for the state.
The state has three active coronavirus cases and one case with an unknown source.
A total of 12,001 tests results were conducted in the past 24 hours.
The last positive cases of coronavirus in Victoria were on October 30 when four infections were recorded.
Victoria hasn’t recorded 14 or more consecutive days of zero new COVID-19 cases since between February 1 and 21.
Two Victorians are in hospital with coronavirus.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the 14-day rolling average of zero was down to “the amazing sacrifice and the character of the Victorian community” but he again warned that coronavirus was “by no means over”.
“Fourteen days of zero is not the same as a vaccine,” he said.
While Victoria has hit the target outlined as one of the steps for the easing of social restrictions in the original roadmap, Mr Andrews said no rules would change before November 22.
“We had 725 cases at the peak, we had thousands of cases of community transmission. This had seeded into our community like no other, into large, complex high risk workplaces and large complex families. It’s not something that any other state in the country has dealt with,” he said.
But he emphasised there too much at stake to rush out of the current restrictions.
“You can’t run, you can’t sprint to COVID-normal. You have to do it in a safe way.”
Despite there being only three active cases in the entire state, Mr Andrews also said that masks would remain mandatory.
“Masks are a low-cost (measure) with a very high return. They won’t be here with us forever but they will as long as they serve a very important purpose — almost like an insurance policy,” he said.
“There will be different settings where they’ll be more appropriate for a longer period of time.”
Despite desperate pleas from struggling CBD businesses to allow workers return to offices, the Premier said employees must remain working from home if they could.
“I think the notion that every worker will be spending every hour where they used to work — that is gone,” Mr Andrews said.
“I take no joy out of this. Cafes and restaurants want as much foot traffic as possible but I don’t think we’re going back to 100 per cent of people at their desk, 9 to 5.”
Victoria’s testing numbers have been praised but Mr Andrews said “there is still the very real prospect that there is transmission out there”.
“Everybody needs to be COVID-safe this weekend.
“Go enjoy regional Victoria, go and spend in regional Victoria, but do it in a safe way.”
MELBOURNE TO GET NEW INSTITUTE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE
The state government has pledged $155m to establish a new Australian Institute for Infectious Disease in Melbourne to fight future pandemics.
The new facility will be located on Elizabeth St and connected to the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.
Dan Andrews announced on Friday that the funding will be allocated in the upcoming state budget, while the University of Melbourne will contribute a further $150m.
The remaining $195m needed to build the centre will be sought from the federal government.
Professor Sharon Lewin, Director of the Doherty Institute, said the new research centre will allow Australia to be more prepared for pandemics in the future.
“There’s no doubt that Australia has done very well in our response. We have seen that there are gaps but obviously we have very good capacity right now,” she said.
“We do have a lot of capabilty but what we want to introduce here is taking us to that next level of being able to captialise on some of the discoveries such as new diagnostics, treatments and vaccines and access to animal testing which was very limited in this pandemic.
“We need to be prepared that we may have something quite different to COVID next time. We might need very different physical capacity next time.”
Construction on the centre is expected to start in 2022 for completion in 2025.
Mr Andrews said 350 jobs would be created in the construction, while up to 850 people will be employed at the centre when it’s operational.
“This is exactly the right thing to do at this time. This has been a one in 100 year event but novel viruses and global pandemics is one part of infectious disease,” Mr Andrews said.
“Who knows, there may be more pandemics of this nature in the years to come.
“There are many other infectious diseases, the cost of which in terms of lives, suffering and hardship together with the economic cost, this is some of the most important work.
“We have all the component parts to ensure we are leading the world.”
MEATWORKS OWNER TO TESTIFY AT CONTACT TRACING INQUIRY
The boss of Cedar Meats is among the first witnesses to be called to appear at the Victorian inquiry into the state’s contact tracing system.
Meatworks owner Tony Kairouz will testify on Wednesday and is expected to reveal previously unknown details of how authorities handled the first major coronavirus outbreak.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has previously claimed the case had been handled “perfectly”.
But in reality staff and the business owners were on occasion not notified people had returned positive results and said there were crucial delays in the government shutting the workplace down.
The inquiry conducted by the parliament’s Legal and Social Issues Committee, chaired by Reason Party Leader Fiona Patten, will also hear from Australia chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel AO, the Information Commissioner, Hello World Travel CEO Andrew Burnes and a range of Victorian health and business groups starting from Monday next week.
— Alex White
TRADERS HOLD OUT HOPE FOR RETURN OF SHOPPERS
City traders are surviving on as little as 10 per cent of their usual trade as figures revealed hundreds of shop vacancies in Melbourne’s CBD.
Businesses owners told the Herald Sun they’re merely staying open for appearances, hoping it would send a positive message for customers to return.
Only government handouts were allowing them to stay alive.
Tony Roussos, of The Quarter in Degraves St, said the initial days after lockdown were encouraging but the curiosity factor from people going to the city had waned.
“As more places have opened … well, there are only so many people to go around,’’ he said.
During the pandemic Mr Roussos’ business had dropped to as low as 2 per cent of usual trade.
It was now at least 80 per cent lower than this time last year.
Dave Lydiate’s Flinders St store Out of the Closet had been hammered by the loss of tourists and students.
“It’s a ghost town,” he said.
“Some days now I might get 14 people down.
“Previous to this we were flat out every day.”
Pankaj Bajaj has worked in the CBD for 12 years and called it the “heartbeat of Melbourne”.
“Now we are finding it is the last to recover. It was the city that was supporting the suburbs,” the Flora restaurant manager said.
Son Mohan, the owner of Bluebag salad store in Collins St, said they were keeping the doors open so customers knew they were still there.
“We are trading at about 10 per cent – so it’s pretty hard,” Ms Mohan said.
“Last week, we would have been at 2 or 3 per cent – so 10 per cent is a positive outcome. The whole way we think of business now has changed.”
Michael Yelen has slashed the hours he worked at his stationery store My Office. “We would be down 90 per cent. It’s all due to people not being in offices, that’s all it is.”
He used to start work at 6am and now opens at 8am and closes at 3pm.
Paul Parkinson’s footwear store McCloud Shoes normally has a bumper November with the Spring Carnival and summer events.
“Sales have dropped dramatically though. You only have to look around the city, obviously most people are still working from home.”
Mr Parkinson said JobKeeper had been a “lifesaver”, as had rent reductions.
Figures from realestate.com.au show the Melbourne City Council area had 230 additional vacant shops since the pandemic startedwith the office vacancy rate rising from 3.4 per cent before the pandemic to 11.3 per cent.
“It’s likely as bad as it’s going to get, at least for retail and apartment vacancies,” realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee said.
About 12,000 apartments were vacant across the City of Melbourne at the end of October – up from just 4577 in March.
The biggest vacancies were in the CBD (4810), Southbank (1859), South Yarra (1260), Carlton (1049) and Docklands (1016).
Ms Conisbee said the Melbourne council area was Australia’s highest-risk market as a result, accounting for about 42 per cent of the total increase in vacant apartments nationwide since COVID-19 first struck.
FUN RUNS, MARATHONS AT RISK OF GOING UNDER
Thousands of fun runs, marathons and ocean swims are in danger of going under without government support, organisers fear.
Marathon legends Rob de Castella and Steve Moneghetti have joined sport events industry bosses to warn many of the nation’s popular events are facing financial oblivion.
The Australian Mass Participation Sporting Events Alliance — representing event organisers, suppliers and supporters — estimates that this year 19,000 events have been cancelled and 11,000 jobs lost.
As much as $75m in charity fundraising had been forgone.
De Castella said at least half of Australia’s mass participation events may not survive without urgent help. He urged governments to provide financial support and work with the sector to ensure events such as Ironman could safely return.
“These events play such an important role not just in physical activity but in mental health and are enjoyed by thousands and thousands of people,” he said.
“You have a clear impact not just on the economy but on charitable organisations that rely on participation to provide funding. We want to work with governments to get the industry to survive and then up and running as fast as possible.”
De Castella said organisers were ready to impose strict safety regimes, with Canberra’s Stromlo Running Festival one of few participation events on this month — an example of how the sector could continue.
The festival was staggering start times, limiting entrants and rolling out a host of other measures to ensure it maintained public health guidelines.
“It is all very well for governments to draw a line through things. We need them to be open to ideas and work with us on solutions,” de Castella said.
He and Moneghetti on Thursday took part in an online forum challenging governments to act now to prevent the collapse of mass participation sports.
Spartan Australia and New Zealand managing director Chris Heverin, whose group co-ordinates challenge races nationwide, said the sector also delivered a major boost to regional communities and contributed $1.1bn to the national economy each year.
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2020-11-13 00:12:00Z
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