Deaths from coronavirus in Australia have passed 500, with most of them in Victoria as the state’s chief health officer vowed not to allow a repeat of the deadly outbreak.
Victoria recorded 17 more deaths on Sunday to lift the state’s pandemic tally to 415, four weeks since Australia first experienced a double-digit daily death count on July 26.
Halfway through lockdown, chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton defiantly declared he would not let the state’s hard-fought COVID-19 gains slip.
Victoria recorded a second consecutive day below 200 cases on Saturday, prompting Professor Sutton to predict numbers could dip below 150 next week.
“We’re not going to see 300 and 400 (cases) again in Victoria under my watch, at least,” he said.
“We’re applying a strategy that is driving cases down.”
With 3920 ‘mystery’ cases, Prof Sutton warned restrictions would not be lifted in full until community transmission is eradicated.
Meanwhile a second television show has been forced to shutdown after Channel Ten’s The Masked Singer reported positive cases.
Channel Nine’s Millionaire Hotseat, hosted by Eddie McGuire, is shot in a neighbouring studio and has been ordered to suspend filming until the end of stage four restrictions.
The two shows share common areas in Melbourne’s Docklands Studios precinct.
The Masked Singer host Osher Gunsberg revealed a dancer who felt ill spoke up about symptoms hours before the singing reality show was due to film its finale.
Another six cases have been linked to the dancer’s infection and the entire show has been ordered into isolation, including celebrity judges Dannii Minogue, Dave Hughes, Jackie O and Urzila Carlson.
Federal parliament resumes
Federal politicians will gather in Canberra the first time in 10 weeks with many Victorian MPs, including Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, forced into 14 days of quarantine.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the parliament will operate in a COVID-safe way, allowing members and senators to participate via a video link-up for the first time in history.
The two-week sitting that was due to start on August 4 was cancelled because of the COVID-19 outbreak in Victoria.
Senator Cormann said the priority for this sitting fortnight will be to pass legislation to extend the JobKeeper wage subsidy and the enhanced JobSeeker dole payment.
“That’s obviously important to give businesses and working Australians who rely on these payments certainty that the arrangements remain in place,” he told reporters in Perth.
The JobKeeper scheme will step down from a fortnightly payment of $1500 to $1200 at the end of September, and then down to $1000 from December to March.
“At some point we need to get back into a situation where viable, profitable businesses pay for the wages of their employees out of their income rather than on the basis of taxpayers’ support,” Senator Cormann said.
The JobSeeker unemployment benefit has temporarily been doubled to a maximum $1100 per fortnight through to September, but then will be reduced $800 until the end of the year.
-with AAP
