Seven Covid-19 deaths occurred overnight in Victoria, a record for the state, with most connected to aged care facilities, as national cabinet met to discuss the growing crisis in the sector on Friday morning.
A further 300 new cases of the virus were announced by the state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, with just 51 of those connected to known outbreaks. The remainder are under investigation by the public health team. There are 206 Victorians in hospital, 41 of them in intensive care.
“I am saddened to have to report that there have been a further six deaths as a result of this virus since we last updated you, that takes the total number of Victorians who have died because of coronavirus to 55 … three in their 90s and three in their 80s,” Andrews said on Friday morning before the seventh death was confirmed.
The state’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, warned of further deaths. “I’m afraid we will see that and I expect that to occur. That is very tragic.” He added that cases within aged care and healthcare were a concern.
“We know that there are challenges because of essential work, because of healthcare settings, and a casualised workforce and we’re working very hard in those areas,” Sutton said.
It follows comments from the Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) that the aged care sector is days away from crisis. Sutton said: “I think the AMA are looking at the numbers, saying that the turnaround in numbers has been slow and they want to see everything possible done to drive those numbers down.
“What I would say is we are on that pathway, we are trying to do everything possible, but we are doing it on the basis of the data, the epidemiology and our understanding of where transmission is occurring and how it’s occurring, and that’s what we’re focused on.
“Certainly there are a number of staff who are infected and a number of others who are close contacts, who need to quarantine. The commonwealth has been very supportive and we’re working very closely with them on that replacement workforce required for for residents. There are probably more infected residents now than staff because of that potential for transmission between residents.”
Andrews had just come from a meeting of national cabinet when he updated the media on Friday, but said he would wait for the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to announce where Victoria’s aged care system was on the agenda. Hundreds of aged care and health workers have been furloughed in recent weeks due to being exposed to or contracting the virus, putting pressure on the system.
But Andrews said more than 1,400 Australian Defence Force (ADF) staff were now helping Victoria’s contact tracing team, an essential component of the state’s response to find new cases.
“We are deploying ADF personnel in an innovative and unique way,” Andrews said. ADF staff would assist in contacting newly identified cases within 24 hours to find out who those people had been in close contact with so they could be notified and tested. The ADF would be going to people’s houses rather than just taking the previous approach of calling confirmed cases.
“If contact cannot be made with them via two telephone calls in a two-hour period, then ADF and authorised officers will be deployed to go and knock those people’s doors and to conduct that interview on their doorstep, as opposed to doing it over the phone,” Andrews said. “It’s not about making judgements about people. It’s just a practical challenge on any list of people that you ring, there will always be some that you can’t get through to.
“It goes without saying though, if you were door knocked and you were not found at home, then you are in breach of the orders because you are a positive case and you should be at home. So that would almost certainly lead to you being fined. So that is not the purpose of this but if ADF, or an authorised officer visit you and you are not at home … you will have some very clear explaining to do.”
Victoria’s police minister, Lisa Neville, said police had issued 101 fines and 63 warnings on Thursday. “They are people deciding they still want to party, people who have decided they want to continue to go to brothels, decided that the gym can continue to operate,” she said.
But she said that overall “there are large numbers of Victorians trying to do the right thing, already doing the right thing and wanting to make sure that other Victorians are also doing the right thing”.
In New South Wales, seven new cases were recorded overnight, six of them linked with the Thai Rock restaurant cluster, bringing the total number from the cluster to 52. Of those, three are connected to the Our Lady of Lebanon church sub-cluster and three are close contacts of other confirmed cases.
One new case has no identified source, indicating community transmission. Queensland recorded two new cases of the virus in hotel quarantine overnight, with both cases testing positive on day 11 of their 14-day quarantine.
