Minister defends police at border as Victoria records third week of zero local cases
Victoria has reached 21 consecutive days without a new locally acquired COVID-19 case, but two new cases have emerged in hotel quarantine.
There were 13,612 tests carried out in Victoria on Tuesday, despite the public holiday.
Victoria has 31 active cases across the state. The two new cases in hotel quarantine are not linked to the Australian Open.
Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister Martin Pakula defended the continued deployment of police at the NSW border and said police will be sent back to their regular jobs once the border permit system is no longer necessary.
“We’ve still got one zone from NSW which is red. There is still a permit process in place for the border,” he said.
The comments came after Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt called for a reduction in the number of police officers working at the border.
Mr Gatt said there were currently 850 officers enforcing border rules, but the need for so many was waning.
“With coronavirus transmission down in the community the officers could be better used fighting crime,” he told Neil Mitchell on radio station 3AW.
“It’s probably time that we have to start genuinely thinking about bringing those officers back home.”
Hundreds of Victoria Police officers were deployed to the border just before Christmas in response to the northern beaches outbreak in Sydney.
Mr Pakula also said the government would announce in the next “few days” what percentage of seats at the Australian Open could be filled by fans.
Tickets for the Open have been selling at about 35 per cent capacity but, at different times in the past 12 months, tennis officials have expressed optimism about catering for up to 400,000 fans across 14 days of competition – or half of maximum capacity.
“The longer we go through the year, as the vaccine rolls out, you may well see those numbers tweak upward provided we can continue our long run of zero cases,” he said.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced an easing of restrictions in Greater Sydney from 12.01am on Friday, as the state announced zero cases of community transmission in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.
The absence of local COVID-19 transmission comes amid grim news from around the world, with the number of cases recorded globally surpassing 100 million, according to Johns Hopkins data. More than 25 million are in the United States alone.
More than 2.1 million people have died since the pandemic began a little over a year ago.
Overnight Britain recorded 100,000 deaths. “It’s hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic; the years of life lost,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said of the toll.
While the number of infections and the death toll continue to rise overseas, an “unseemly” dispute between Europe and the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing two key coronavirus vaccines threatens to slow shipments of the lifesaving jab to Australia should the row worsen.
In the first major example of long-feared “vaccine nationalism”, the European Union has slapped export controls on vaccines produced within its territory because Pfizer and AstraZeneca can no longer meet their pre-agreed supply volumes and timelines with the bloc.
While Australia plans to produce the AstraZeneca jab at a Melbourne factory owned by biopharmaceutical firm CSL, the 10 million doses it has agreed to buy from Pfizer will be manufactured in Belgium.
On Tuesday AstraZeneca denied its vaccine isn’t effective in people aged over 65, after reports in German media suggested it may not receive European approval for use on the elderly.
In Victoria, as thousands gathered for Invasion Day marches on Tuesday, coronavirus marshals separated the crowd into groups of 100 people to comply with restrictions on public gatherings and handed out masks.
Homepage Editor
Paul is a Victorian political reporter for The Age.