Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says the rapid uptake of vaccinations in Melbourne hotspots is bringing some stability to Victoria's outbreak, as the state records 1,377 new cases and four deaths.
Key points:
- Brett Sutton says cases in Melbourne's north have stabilised as vaccinations have surged
- A testing blitz of more than 8,000 VCE students revealed 33 COVID cases over the weekend
- Melbourne's outer-west and south east have been the hardest hit economically by the pandemic, according to new research
The new cases were identified from 67,789 test results received yesterday and take the state's total active cases to 12,711.
The deaths of a woman in her 70s and a woman in her 60s from Hume, a man in his 60s from Manningham and a man in his 80s from Moreland take the toll in the current outbreak to 53.
State and Commonwealth vaccination figures differ slightly, but indicate about 82 per cent of Victorians aged over 16 have received at least one dose of vaccine and around 52 per cent are fully vaccinated.
The Delta outbreak is spilling further into Melbourne's south-east, which authorities say is largely attributable to household gatherings being held in defiance of the state's health directives.
More tier 1 exposure sites have been listed in regional Victoria, with new listings in Morwell and Shepparton overnight.
COVID-19 fragments have also been detected in wastewater samples from Mildura.
Epidemiologist Tony Blakely from the University of Melbourne said he was "concerned" about the continued run of days with more than 1,000 new cases.
"The virus is in specific populations, be that by suburbs, be that by age groups, and the other thing is we are seeing non-compliance. You don't have to look far to see that non-compliance," he told ABC News Breakfast.
"Both those things will be overtaken at some point by increasing vaccine coverage, but [it's] hard to tell exactly when."
Professor Blakely said despite the growing case numbers he had no doubts about the effectiveness of lockdowns as a strategy.
"If we'd let it rip last year we would've had severe mortality and morbidity and the rest of it, it's just that we haven't had the same luck as other places, we also had the quarantine failures with our second wave last year which were avoidable."
The health department revealed yesterday people who had received a negative test result after day 13 of their quarantine no longer needed to wait to be contacted by health officials before leaving quarantine.
Northern suburbs outbreak stabilises
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said COVID cases in the northern suburbs of Melbourne had begun to stabilise, following a targeted vaccination drive in affected postcode.
"That really is a reflection of the huge increase in vaccination uptake in those local government areas in the last couple of weeks, as they've gone to the state average and beyond in some of those postcodes," Professor Sutton said.
Around 42 per cent of today's cases originated in the north of the city, with 582 cases identified primarily in Hume, Wyndham, Whittlesea, Moreland and Darebin.
AAP: James Ross
)Professor Sutton said he could not guarantee Victoria would remain on schedule to meet the vaccination dates set out in September's roadmap.
"It is all subject to how people step up over coming days in terms of the vaccination coverage," he said.
However he said the high uptake of the vaccine among young Victorians was an encouraging sign for the state.
"But 12 to 15 year-olds, record numbers," he said.
"It is literally a vertical line looking at the vaccination coverage.
"They are coming in droves to get vaccinated and that means they are not far behind in terms of having our double-dosed 80 per cent coverage for 16 and above, followed by the same sort of coverage for 12 and above within a couple of days."
Dozens of students test positive to COVID-19 before GAT
A number of positive COVID cases have been identified in VCE students, after more than 8,000 underwent COVID testing on the weekend.
The government urged students sitting the GAT on Tuesday to get tested over the weekend, with priority lanes set up at Melbourne Showgrounds and Coolaroo testing sites.
Thirty-three students tested positive for COVID during the testing blitz and received medical exemptions from the test.
Minister for Education James Merlino said the testing blitz was integral in identifying these cases.
"We may not have found these cases otherwise, so that goes a long way to help us hold the GAT as safely as possible tomorrow," he said.
"The Department of Education is contacting these students and letting them know that they cannot sit the GAT and we'll make arrangements for how they can sit their exams at a later stage."
Professor Sutton said protocols around close contacts at schools would change from today, with a "stratification of risk" in place for schools with COVID exposure.
"The class will be the most at-risk contacts obviously, but other classes won't necessarily need to quarantine at home and we certainly won't have the entire school quarantining for the entire 14-day period," Professor Sutton said.
He said factors such as vaccination status, length of exposure and ventilation would inform decisions on student quarantining.
Mr Merlino announced a further $230 million in funding for Victoria's tutor learning initiative for the 2022 school year.
ABC News: Danielle Bonica
)Individual schools will be able access the same funding of $15,000 they received in 2021, while smaller schools will be able to receive increased funding of $25,000.
Mr Merlino said the academic results of Victorian students showed the beneficial effects of the initiative.
"It's paying profound dividends. We released the NAPLAN data earlier in the year and Victoria is leading the nation in NAPLAN results," he said.
"Extraordinary given the circumstances of the last 20 months or so."
CHO backs curfew measures
Professor Sutton addressed criticisms of the curfew enforced across Melbourne and said it may have had an effect in curbing case numbers.
"I would hate to think how many people might be moving into other households, should that not be in place," he said.
But he said it was not possible to produce a singular piece of evidence proving the efficacy of the curfew.
"We know there is a reduction in traffic the hours the curfew is in place, how to quantify it, it's hard to say," he said.
The opposition has called for the removal of the curfew and asked the government to make any public health advice justifying its implementation public.
""It's time for the curfew to end. This curfew has never been based on health advice and the curfew has caused untold mental health stress for many families around Melbourne," Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said.
Professor Sutton said the curfew was expected to be removed by the end of the month.
There is no curfew currently enforced in locked down LGAs outside of metropolitan Melbourne.
Aboriginal health group sends vaccination vans to outbreak-hit Shepparton
Mr Merlino also flagged a new initiative to target low vaccination rates in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), community leaders and other health services will bring dedicated vaccination vans into Indigenous communities around the state.
Mr Merlino said three of Victoria's Smile Squad dental vans will be repurposed as vaccination vans, with the first heading to Shepparton today.
Shepparton was put into a week-long lockdown last week, and has the largest Aboriginal population in Victoria outside of Melbourne.
"Vaccine uptake in Victoria's First Nations communities is high compared to other states and territories, but it is still lower than the broader Victorian population with 65 per cent having received a first dose," Mr Merlino said.
South Australia border bubble shrinks following new case
The 70-kilometre border bubble between South Australia and Victoria will be reduced in size by more than half following a positive COVID case crossing state lines.
A South Australian mother of four is believed to have contracted the virus on a family visit to Casterton before returning home to Mount Gambier.
The bubble will be shrunk from 70km in radius to 30km, with the changes to last seven days.
South Australia has now recorded four new COVID cases in the past week.
Research reveals areas hit hard by job losses
Melbourne's outer north-west and south-east have suffered the most economic damage in Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the University of NSW.
The research showed the number of people on income support payments in September 2021 was 27 per cent higher across the country than pre-pandemic levels.
That number peaked at 70 per cent higher during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020.
In the Melbourne electorates of Calwell, Lalor, Gorton, and Macnamara, up to 6,000 more people per electorate needed income support payments than pre-pandemic levels.
ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie said the end of the Jobkeeper wage subsidy scheme earlier this year hit many communities hard.
"Last year average incomes actually rose, despite the deepest recession in almost a century," she said.
"But this year is a starkly different story. COVID has left a scorched economic path, particularly in areas that were more disadvantaged pre-pandemic."
ACOSS has called on the federal government to extend COVID disaster payments, and raise other income support payments such as JobSeeker and Youth Allowance.
The COVID disaster payments, which cost the Commonwealth about $1 billion a week, are due to be phased out as states hit 70 per cent and 80 per cent full-vaccination targets.
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