Victoria Covid News Live: 208 Continued Blockades in Melbourne

Victoria set another tough new record on Friday, and the state confirmed 208 new Covid-19 cases.

The outbreak occurred after Prime Minister Daniel Andrews warned earlier this week that Victorians “will not see a decline in these cases.”

Follow below for today’s Top Covid-19 updates. Keep updating the page to see the latest developments.

More freedom may come to Vic

Victorian people have been offered some good news during another day of the record Covid-19 incident, and Prime Minister Daniel Andrews could relax additional restrictions in the coming weeks. It suggests that.

On Wednesday, Andrews outlined a set of rules that would be relaxed when the state reached a 70 percent vaccination rate for the first dose.

Initially, the state was expected to reach this milestone around September 23, but the recent surge in vaccine intake means that these freedoms could come even sooner, and the prime minister changed further. Can also be added.

“The more people we vaccinate, the faster the initial dose will reach 70%, and the sooner we can deliver the announcement we made the other day,” Andrews said.

“We can probably make the changes we announced the other day sooner.”

He said there may be other restrictions that may be relaxed when the vaccine goals are achieved, such as recreational activities and industry settings.

“It needs to be conservative due to the circumstances in which we are placed, but when the initial dose reaches 70%, there are more options.”

Aus secures 4 million Pfizer doses from the UK

Australia is Prime Minister Scott Morrison 4 million additional doses of Pfizer after signing a major contract with the UK.

At a press conference on Friday, Morrison said the dose would arrive in Australia this month.

“There are four million reasons to have hope today,” he said.

“The government was able to secure a Pfizer swap deal with the UK government, with four million Pfizer coming to Australia this month.”

Morrison said the first batch of additional doses would arrive on Saturday.

“The plane is currently on the tarmac. We will leave tomorrow,” he said.

The remaining additional doses will arrive in the coming weeks.

Additional freedom planned for vaccinated residents

Fully vaccinated Victorians are offered more freedom than residents who refused to be vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said.

Andrews said that when the state reaches 70% and 80% of double vaccinations, there will be an opportunity to open part of the economy to fully vaccinated people.

“In other words, when the double vaccination threshold for these vaccinations is reached as part of the national program, the concept of community-wide blockade is much less relevant, but most of our response. It’s a blockade, among many places for unvaccinated people, “he said.

“It may seem a bit tough now, but I said this before, and I’ll reiterate the issue.

It means that we are not going to block the entire state to protect those who do not protect themselves. “

Andrews had the opportunity to be vaccinated when these fees were reached, but chose not to be barred from going to sporting events, pubs, or attending “various places of all kinds”. Said the people who did.

The places that unvaccinated people can visit are “very limited,” he said.

“You can participate in the economy and go to pubs, cinemas and sporting events. What unvaccinated people can’t do. There’s freedom that no one else has,” he said.

“They may be vaccinated and are locked out from everywhere because they chose not to be vaccinated. That is the greatest incentive to gain our freedom.”

Andrews will soon be testing in many industries to test the introduction of additional freedom for vaccinated residents and how people prove that they have received their shots. Said it will be done.

Victoria records 208 cases

Victoria recorded 208 new Covid-19 cases from 24 hours last night to midnight.

This is the largest surge in infections the state has seen during this latest outbreak.

The state also recorded one new death.

Of the new cases, 96 are associated with known cases and outbreaks, and 112 sources are still under investigation.

Additional dose of Pfizer vaccine in Victoria

In Sydney, Pfizer’s latest 500,000 shipments have landed. As part of a vaccine exchange deal between Australia and Singapore announced by the Prime Minister on Tuesday.

The 500,000 additional doses will soon expire and were sent to the Australian coast to increase low vaccination coverage.

Victoria gets the second highest dose in the distribution, ensuring 131,149 doses for the state.

Victoria following a “similar pattern” to NSW

Professor Catherine Bennett, director of epidemiology at Deakin University, said the outbreak in Victoria showed that the situation in New South Wales was similar to the way it evolved.

Professor Bennett said the state can expect the number of cases to continue to grow by about 20 percent every few days as the number of cases continues to grow today.

“The overall trend definitely shows a similar pattern, with reproductive numbers kept at around 1.2 or 1.3,” she said. sunrise..

“Still, it means a 20% increase every 4-5 days, so you need to be careful. The overall number is on the rise, so it’s very important to get vaccinated as soon as possible. That’s why it helps push down fertility and stop this inevitable rise.

“The bigger the number, the bigger the jump, but the bigger the jump, like yesterday. But exponential growth means that the daily jumps look bigger, so don’t keep climbing at the same rate. You need to manage this. “

Those who go to the beach oppose the blockade order on a horrifying day

Hundreds of people fill Melbourne’s beaches on Thursday, and many see opposition to blockade restrictions, even though the state has recorded the worst days of outbreaks so far. I did.

In a warm climate, the crowd came down to Elwood Beach. The group drank alcohol on the sand and danced while playing music on portable speakers. Herald Sun Report.

Many beachers were also seen not wearing masks when relaxing on the sand, but were also seen having picnics in nearby parks.

Under the current blockade restrictions in Victoria, residents leave their homes for the goods and services they need, their long-term care and compassionate needs, permitted work and permitted education, two hours of exercise per day, or You can only get the Covid-19 vaccine.

Exercise is permitted with only one other person, and dependents and residents must stay within 5 km of their home.

Face masks should be worn indoors and outdoors whenever a person leaves the house, but can be removed in public places when consuming food, medicine, or non-alcoholic beverages.

A large crowd was also seen in St. Kirda. In St. Kirda, the presence of police was so great that police officers cracked down on rule violators.

This was the same day Victoria confirmed the largest infection spike in over a year, with 176 new Covid cases occurring on Thursday.

AZ vaccination interval has been halved

Victorians now have the option of waiting just six weeks to get their second AstraZeneca vaccination, under new government initiatives to increase vaccination coverage.

“Today we can also announce that the interval between doses, the first and second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Victoria, will be reduced from 12 to 6 weeks for all state-owned services,” said Health Minister Martin. Stated. Foley said Thursday.

“This coincides with the Pfizer vaccine dosing interval, so reservations for AstraZeneca and Pfizer will be in the next six weeks, and these changes will be effective in the reservation system today.”

Households rapidly increasing in workplaces and cases

Workplace and home infections are the main driver behind the surge in Victoria’s Covid-19 cases.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Ben Kawi said that this does not necessarily mean that people in these situations are doing the wrong thing, especially if there are so many active cases in the community that the virus He said it was easy to spread.

“There are community infections, workplace infections. We need to work with the workplace to ensure that all of Covid’s safe guidelines apply. If we can, work from home. It is important to do so, and only authorized workers need to go out, “he said.

“Also note that there is an important community outbreak between households. I think we are all desperate to see an extended family, but for now it’s me. The worst thing we can do. The last thing everyone wants to see and think about is that they endanger their loved ones. It’s scary for someone to reflect on.

“It’s challenging. Can you admit that seeing this kind of number is challenging for everyone and increases the feeling of fatigue we feel? But in all that we have done If not, we wouldn’t be talking about hundreds of cases, but thousands of cases. “