Victoria has recorded 134 new cases of Covid-19, with the source of 123 still under investigation, as state police launched a renewed focus on ensuring those who breach public health orders face consequences.
After the New South Wales-Victoria border closed at midnight on Tuesday, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warned the risk of contagion spreading into her state was “very high” and said even tougher border restrictions might be implemented targeting those living in border communities such as Albury.
Berejiklian said people living in towns near the border, such as Wagga, should not visit places closer to Victoria, and asked people in border towns not to move outside them unless “absolutely necessary”.
The Victorian police commissioner, Shane Patton, said on Wednesday morning police would dramatically increase their presence in and around metropolitan Melbourne, which will be under lockdown for six weeks from midnight. Police would focus on 32 local government areas under stage-three restrictions, which mean people can leave their homes only for exercise, work and school, groceries, and essential services such as childcare and healthcare.
The Victorian government has also sought the assistance of the Australian Defence Force, with more than 250 ADF officers to assist with on-ground operations, including monitoring the lockdown boundaries. Booze buses will be deployed to road stops and checkpoints to monitor traffic flow, and police will use number plate recognition to scan registration details and identify the residential addresses of licence holders.
“It won’t be an absolute ring of steel, but there will be a significant police presence,” Patton said. “We’re going to be checking people. We’re going to be making sure they’re adhering to those guidelines. If you don’t have a reason to leave, you will be turned back around. If someone breaches those guidelines and leaves when they shouldn’t, you’ll receive an infringement of $1,652. We’ll have mounted branch. We’ll have the highway patrol. The chances of actually being detected are going to be very significant.”
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said the ADF staff would not have the same powers as police, “but they’ll be working together as one team, just as they have all the way through”.
Berejiklian told reporters on Wednesday that while residents of both NSW and Victoria could apply for exemptions allowing them to travel between the states for very limited reasons, including medical care, people should “not assume this will continue”.
“We are monitoring this situation every few hours because, as I said, we’re assured of the advice we get on this side of the border, the Victorian government is under immense pressure and the contact tracing that is happening on this side of the border we can’t be assured is necessarily happening on the other side of the border,” she said. “For that reason, the government will be considering potentially further action in relation to those border communities.”
Eight new cases of the virus were found in NSW overnight, with seven of those returned international travellers now in hotel quarantine. A woman in her 30s from south-western Sydney also tested positive, and further investigations were under way to determine whether it was a historical infection or a more recent one. Her close contacts include staff at Liverpool hospital.
Of the new cases announced in Victoria, 75 were in the nine public housing towers under strict lockdown in Flemington and North Melbourne. There are now 860 active cases of the virus throughout the state, with 41 people in hospital including seven in intensive care.
Andrews said almost 30,000 tests had been carried out in Victoria on Tuesday.
“I think that if we all work together over these next six weeks, as painful and frustrating and difficult as that will be, we will be able to get to the other side of this stay-at-home period,” he said. “We’ll be able to then recommence our opening up in a cautious way. We’ll be able to repair the damage to the economy that this virus is doing and, along the way, we’ll be able to support those who need that support, whether it be businesses, families, individuals, or indeed communities.”
Asked about comments he made on Tuesday about Victorians growing frustrated with physical distancing and hygiene protocols being partly responsible for the current outbreak, Andrews said: “I think that’s an accurate description of the way some people are behaving.”
But, he said: “That’s not every Victorian.”
But he added if people did not continue to act responsible, deaths would rise. “We see it in states that are around the world that are a similar size to us – 5,000 deaths, 10,000 deaths,” he said. “Indeed some – many, many more than that. We don’t want that here. That’s why we have to stay the course and get this right.”
The prime minister Scott Morrison said there had “not been a day of complacency” when it came to dealing with the outbreak in Victoria. “For the people, in particular, of Melbourne – this is hard,” he said. “It’s tough. And it will test you and it will strain, but you have done it once before and you will be able to do it again because you have proven that.”
“We’re all Victorians now because we’re all Australians and that’s where the challenge is right now,” he said.
Andrews told the ABC on Wednesday morning that Victorians might soon be told to wear masks.
The head of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Tony Bartone, said masks might offer some benefit when using public transport or in crowded locations.
“This is especially the case in those suburbs where we know community transmission is high,” Bartone said. But, he said: “Isolation, physical distancing, and regularly washing your hands is more effective at reducing transmission than masks. Furthermore, it must be made very clear – masks are not a silver bullet, particularly when not worn correctly.”
