Travel vouchers back as Victoria records no new COVID-19 cases
Travel vouchers will be on offer to Victorians again as part of a $143 million government recovery package aimed at helping businesses affected by the “circuit-breaker” lockdown.
Industry Support and Recovery Minister Martin Pakula said events, art accommodation, tourism and hospitality businesses, as well as selected retailers, would be receiving the support.
A total of 50,000 businesses, including sole traders, would be assisted as part of the package, he said.
Mr Pakula said the regional travel voucher scheme would be rebooted, with a further 10,000 vouchers offered. Under a new scheme, 40,000 vouchers worth $200 each will be available for travel in Great Melbourne.
“In total there would have been 200,000 vouchers for accommodation in regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne issued as part of the scheme,” Mr Pakula said.
The government imposed a snap five-day lockdown on Friday, February 12, in response to an outbreak that began at the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport.
Victoria recorded no new cases of coronavirus in the community or in hotel quarantine on Sunday. Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination program is due to begin on Monday.
It was the second day in a row there were no new locally acquired cases recorded in Victoria.
The last time the state recorded locally acquired cases was on Friday, when there were three new cases confirmed, all linked to the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn outbreak and in people who had already been told to self-isolate by contact tracers.
There are 25 active COVID-19 cases in Victoria. This number remains unchanged since Saturday.
There were 10,339 tests for the virus carried out on Saturday. Test numbers have decreased each day since Wednesday, the last day of the state’s five-day lockdown, in which there were a record number of almost 40,000 test results processed.
Victoria’s Employment Minister Jaala Pulford has said the state government had given out more than $6 billion in support payments to businesses since the start of the pandemic.
She said this total did not include the $143 million support package announced on Sunday to assist businesses affected by the latest lockdown last week.
The good news comes a day before Australians start to roll up their sleeves for a COVID-19 jab.
Dedicated vaccination clinics will be set up at all of Melbourne’s quarantine hotels in a bid to have thousands of medical staff, cleaners and other front-line quarantine workers fully vaccinated against COVID-19 within about 10 weeks.
About 300 airline flight crew, customs workers, cargo handlers and other airport workers are also expected to receive the vaccine each day at the new vaccination hub at Melbourne Airport, run by Western Health.
And the one-way trans-Tasman travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia has resumed, with Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly saying cases in Auckland pose a “low risk” of spreading into Australia.
The travel bubble, in which travellers from New Zealand can arrive in Australia without quarantining, was suspended on February 15.
Australians still need an exemption to travel to New Zealand, and must complete 14 days’ quarantine on arrival.
With Aisha Dow, Melissa Cunningham and Ashleigh McMillan
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Craig Butt joined The Age in 2011 and specialises in data-driven journalism.