Government MPs say restrictions may need to be relaxed and lockdown should be extended

A senior MP supported the minister’s point of view and said the public health team of Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton should determine the types of freedoms that would not blow up the place while cases were still registered.

“I don’t see us getting to zero,” the MP said, “so can we allow some limited things, like allowing people with double vaxx to visit loved ones or relatives in elderly care? according to very controlled rules? “

Conversely, another minister and backbench MP said the current lockdown settings should continue until there is no risk of a surge in cases once the rules are relaxed. . “We all know how difficult it is, but there is no option. We have come this far and people are more resilient than some think, ”said the Minister.

A backbench MP said: “This is probably our last lockdown if we crush it.”

NSW recorded 1,035 cases on Saturday but is plans to allow outdoor weddings and gatherings in the coming weeks despite the stress on his health system due to the increase in the number of cases.

Professor Blakely’s modeling on his proposal to ease the lockdown, which he says would improve the mental health of Victorians, predicts cases to reach around 400 per day before immunization coverage catches up and reduces the peak by the mid-October. Its modeling has underpinned the state government’s roadmap after the months-long lockdown last year.

According to an option proposed by the professor, strict rules would remain but more time would be given outside, the travel limit would become 10 kilometers, some retail businesses could open and essential sectors such as construction could regain a greater capacity. operating.

Since making the proposal on Monday, Professor Blakely has said the trajectory of Victoria’s outbreak has not improved and it will likely take several more weeks for the strict lockdown to reduce cases.

He said the government may soon choose to relax some rules such as the ban on playgrounds and curfews and argued that the difficulty of reducing cases near zero requires “serious discussion on the matter. to know if we remained locked up or relaxed certain rules “.

“Basically, giving back some of the [freedoms] to the population, it was worth trying for a few weeks but probably does not change the situation, ”he said.

Of Saturday’s cases, 21 were linked to the western suburbs of Wyndham, Newport and Altona, 10 were from Broadmeadows, nine were from previous cases, seven were based in Shepparton, seven were from Carlton and Brunswick, one was linked to Al-Taqwa college and one was from Dandenong.

In positive news, Mr Weimar said 20 previously unrelated cases had been matched with a known case, with 41 cases still without a clear source.

Forty-two people are hospitalized with the virus. Thirteen people are in intensive care, eight of whom are on ventilators. Among those hospitalized, 26 are under 50, including an infant.

A Carlton and Brunswick cluster has 35 connected cases and three cases announced on Saturday were linked to Barkly Square Coles. A new cluster of four linked to an industrial pocket in Port Melbourne worries the authorities because its genesis is unknown, while community transmission continues in the western suburbs.

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Weimar and Health Minister Martin Foley said authorities were committed to the national cabinet’s plan to aggressively suppress the virus in hopes of opening itself up long before the state hits the 80 vaccine target. % while locks probably shouldn’t be needed.

“If we can roll back this epidemic, if we can eliminate these mysterious cases, if we can get all the [new case] in quarantine, it gives us options to relax restrictions on doing other things, ”Weimar said.

“I am absolutely convinced that if we continue to see the response that we see on the ground, we will have the opportunity to put this in place.”

Mr Foley said the COVID-free status of some Australian states was “valuable to protect” with ACT and Victoria working to regain that status.

He said if NSW leaders had their time again, “they might have been tougher and earlier in the start of their epidemic”.

“I would not put the Victorian health care system under this pressure,” he said.

“What’s at stake here isn’t just weddings and social events. It is the life and death decisions that keep our health care system at a level the Victorians would like to achieve.

“I’m not sure 1000 cases a day is a sign of hope… I’m pretty sure if you ask those ICU nurses in Sydney hospitals right now how they viewed the situation, it wouldn’t be not an extremely rosy picture. “

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