Victoria Covid Update: Melbourne’s Coronavirus Blockade Ends, but Local Travel “Doesn’t Go” | Melbourne

Outdoor rallies are allowed up to 10 people, retailers are allowed to operate with some capacity restrictions, offices return to 25% capacity, funerals are 50 mourners and 50 indoor religions The ritual will be possible and the wedding will be limited to 10 people.

Cosmetology services can also be operated if the customer wears a mask and the community sports group is allowed to train.

However, the gym will continue to be closed and visitors to the house will not be allowed.

In addition, all employees must check in to the workplace using a QR code. This is in response to being linked to the accounting firm in Port Melbourne, one of the largest clusters in this pandemic.

In the area VictoriaThe restrictions have been further relaxed, with 2 guests per day at home, 20 outdoor gatherings, 154 restaurant and cafe customers, less than 75 indoors, and 75 funerals. The number has increased to 20 weddings.

“It was a good day,” said actor James Merlino.

“But we know this isn’t over yet. The virus is still in us until the vaccine spreads throughout Victoria and throughout our country,” Merlino said. “So we can’t sneak in complacency. I want everyone to continue doing the right thing.”

He said, on public health advice, the ban on travel to the Victorian region should be lifted next Thursday.

Further restrictions in Melbourne will be relaxed at the same time, he said.

Merlino said Victoria “absolutely wants to increase its coronavirus vaccine qualifications” to priority groups such as people under the age of 40 and teachers, but there is not enough supply. He said Victoria is in Australia. He said he provided 40% of all vaccines, had a utilization rate of 93%, and wasted 7%.

“We have plenty of capacity,” he said. “If we have more supply and more confidence in our supply, we can increase our qualifications, but at this point we are fully competent and put all the vaccines we have available into people’s weapons. doing. “

Merlino has announced an additional $ 8.36 million to support businesses that are not allowed to open, such as gyms, dance clubs and amusement parks.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said the restrictions were gradually relaxed to ensure that the chain of infections was not detected. health Authorities have yet to discover a transmission route between the South Australian quarantine breach and the first Wollert case reported in late May, and the Victorian hotel quarantine case and the West Melbourne Delta epidemic.

“The Delta variant was clearly discovered, especially through those who came forward for testing without a case of mediation involving hotel quarantine,” he said.

Sutton hopes that regulations in Melbourne will be further relaxed in eight days, but “the situation remains quite volatile.”

“The idea of ​​snapping back without any restrictions didn’t do it after important community communication,” Sutton said. “It didn’t happen after Avalon. [the Sydney northern beaches outbreak]It hasn’t happened since the outbreak of other critical communities, so it needs to be moved in steps safely, but with the minimum limits known to remain in control of this. “

He said he knew that lockdown was a “very painful period.”

“I always kept in mind that I had to do what I needed to do to get it back to zero,” he said. “There really is no choice. There is a reason for our national strategy of aggressive repression. If it doesn’t go to zero, there’s no complaint with one or two cases.

“This started with one case in Warat, and in a few weeks we had nearly 100 cases, so we absolutely need to bring it back to zero.”

The new case reported Wednesday is a person who has already been quarantined as a close contact with the Stratton Finance Cluster.

Martin Foley, Victoria’s health minister, said the cluster’s 2,100 close contacts were still isolated and there was an outbreak of 1,500 first identified in Whittlesea.

As a result of the Arcare Maidstone geriatric care facility epidemic, 1,057 close contacts were quarantined and 1,112 were quarantined as contacts in the West Melbourne cluster.

“As people end the quarantine period, these numbers continue to decline every day,” he said. “And as these numbers decrease, so does the list of exposed sites associated with these aspects of the first part of this outbreak.”

Is Number of exposed sites It decreased from a high of over 300 to 200.