Stage four lockdown and further closures remain likely, Andrews warns
A harsher social distancing regime is still likely in Victoria’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Premier has warned, despite ‘stability’ in the spread of the disease through the state in recent days.
Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday that he believed there would be ‘stage four’ restrictions, curtailing the movements of Victorians even further than the present ‘stage three’ partial lockdown and potentially shutting down some of those industries that are still operating.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews giving a press conference at treasury place in Melbourne on Tuesday. Credit:Luis Ascui
Announcing that up to a million Victorian schoolchildren would be away from their schools for at least the next term, the Premier said he would not hesitate to impose a tighter lockdown if the medical advice called for further action.
Thirty-three new cases of coronavirus were detected on Tuesday in the state, and 11 Victorians have now lost their lives to the virus, with 34 people in hospital, 13 of them in intensive care.
Mr Andrews said there was "some stability" to the numbers of new infections but warned about “getting ahead of ourselves” and that the danger period of the pandemic was “not going to end anytime soon.”
There are now 93 cases of community transmission and the Premier said it was this measure that would trigger further restrictions if Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton became sufficiently worried about local infection rates.
There were no plans at present to stop industries like racing and construction from operating but Mr Andrews flagged that further sector shutdowns might be a feature of stage four restrictions.
“We have no advice to make adjustments to those industries [racing and building], or a range of other industries,” he said.
“I think there will be a fourth stage that will involve a whole range of measures.
“If we start to see a different curve, a different trend particularly in those community transmission numbers then we won’t hesitate to take the steps necessary to protect public health.”
Dr Sutton said it was still possible for Victoria to find itself in the position of the US and some European countries where the disease was running rampant.
“I’m really focused on how critical this risk is," the Chief Health Officer said.
“So even though, there can be a downturn in numbers, we can look like we're heading in the right direction, the stakes could not be higher.
“There are more than 10,000 deaths in a number of European countries now, the United States has ticked over 10,000 deaths.
“We could be in that situation Victoria we can't manage this.”
“So even though I can turn my mind to going in the right direction, the stakes are so enormous that we have to keep our constraints to be able to manage this very infectious virus."