This article was originally written on July 4, 2022 and has since been updated and fact-checked. Follow our Covid live blog for the latest updates, a disease is less devastating if most of its victims are people who have pre-existing conditions, since ordered $62m worth of rapid antigen tests. Two had travelled to Wuhan, China, and the third was a close contact of the two travellers. We just need the governments to come together and we need assistance at this time, otherwise all the money thats been given to them in the past 22 months would have been wasted, Chapel St Precinct general manager Chrissie Maud said. Victoria enters lockdown for the fourth time. 'Shadow lockdown': Dan responds to critics - news This is how the news unfolded on Wednesday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week urged states not to re-introduce mask mandates, saying Australians should by this point in the pandemic know when and when not to wear a face covering. But the state as a whole has been sealed off from neighbouring New South Wales and South Australia. But as a wave of Omicron infections wreaks havoc across workplaces and the healthcare system, data suggests Victorians are voting with their feet and staying close to home. A further two cases were family members of Ariele apartments residents and one case was believed to have been infected at Coles in Craigieburn where a family returning from a red zone were not isolating. Today the state reported nearly 22,000 new infections, but the true number is likely much higher. In the early part of the pandemic, the amount of effort needed to reach these groups was underestimated. On the same day, three men in NSW also test positive for coronavirus. Ashleigh Cooper has spent the new year indoors. Deputy Premier James Merlino urged hospitality venues to switch to a seated-only service to reduce transmission. Melbourne 12:10pm Jun 8, 2022 Shanghai neighbourhoods return to lockdown Multiple neighbourhoods in Shanghai were placed back under lockdown only a day after city-wide restrictions were lifted, as China's stringent zero COVID-19 strategy continues to haunt the financial hub. The NSW government cancels all major events of more than 500 people. Its a story repeated in every Australian state, except Western Australia. "The reason why we want to provide that 2-week period at least is so that parents who are teaching children or supervising children from home know that unfortunately for an additional two weeks at least their children will need to learn from home.". Two years of mostly home schooling has given his youngest child, who started kindergarten in 2020, social anxiety, and his older child had a panic attack at the prospect of returning to face-to-face learning. 'Cautious' Duke 'was careful not to attack members of the Royal family' says Royal watcher amid fears he 'He's completely beige drained of all his feisty ginger life-blood': JULIE BURCHILL'S verdict on Prince 'I felt different to the rest of my family - and my mum felt the same': Prince Harry opens up on his 'broken 'Hallucinogens have helped me to clean the windscreen of my troubled mind': Prince Harry extols the use of A 14-year-old autistic boy's naive prank. Despite the Government trumpeting no more lockdowns once vaccine targets were met, isolation requirements, coupled with density limits and further restrictions have left Victoria in a shadow lockdown, he said. We hit the streets of Sydney and find the normally bustling metropolis completely empty. NSW has meanwhile suffered its worst day of the pandemic with 5,715 new Covid-19 cases. Premier Daniel Andrews has announced Victoria will enter a five-day state-wide lockdown from midnight on Thursday night until 11:59pm on the following Tuesday night. "And that trend is something that we're seeing all across the city.". Inside Prince Harry's finances from when he met Meghan Markle to landing 100M with Netflix and book Spare Do not sell or share my personal information. Its been revealed when Australia will experience the next Covid surge, but one state is expected to reach its peak much sooner than the rest. He said that was a breach of the conditions of their permit. A leading Australian infectious disease expert has ripped into one of the most draconian measures enforced during the pandemic. 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Phoebe says her social circle has split in two: those who have had Covid and are now feeling invulnerable for 30 days despite warnings that earlier reinfection is possible and those who are curbing social activities to try to avoid it. Mr Merlino said Victorians should also now work from home if they can and urged hospitality venues to switch to a seated-only service to reduce transmission. Four of the new cases were recorded on level three of Ariele apartments in Maribyrnong where the removalists stopped. Premier Dominic Perrottet had last week scrapped the QR check-ins for 'low risk' venues such as retail and kept them in place for 'high risk' settings like gyms and pubs. "We need to see the numbers decrease. Australia has one of the most powerful passports in the world. "And that really untangles that narrative that we had, you know, all the way through 2020 and 2021,where there was this fear, there was the suspicion,that there were other people somewhere else that weren't doing the right thing," he said. On Thursday the NSW premier will announce the policy reversal following Covid crisis talks with fellow state leaders and Prime Minister Scott Morrison. 'Masks have a very small individual cost for us,' he said. His deputy leader said the state government is not considering adding to the world-record 262 days Melbourne has spent in lockdown since the Covid pandemic began, 'The promise was if you go and get vaccinated, you can enjoy Christmasand New Year with your families and loved ones and that's exactly what will happen.'. A legal stoush between Federal MP Monique Ryan and her former staffer has devolved into warfare with each side throwing allegations at the other, a court has heard. Some wouldn't survive. Whether the period spent in lockdown and the desire to do anything it took to avoid more of the same was a motivating factor, or whether there were other reasons for this, does not really matter. In the past fortnight none of my patients have gone to ICU. This is an additional 14 days on the previous directions. Victoria has revealed eight new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, with a major Melbourne shopping centre and an AFL game potential points of exposure. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. Theres still high chances of new variants. Victoria recorded eight new cases on Wednesday, seven of them linked to a returned family and a crew of removalists, who both came into the state from NSW. Whats the price that we are willing to pay in order for people to be able to go and have brunch? The fragments were detected as early as July 4 in the Geelong suburbs of Breakwater, Clifton Springs, Curlewis, Leopold, Drysdale, East Geelong, Moolap, Newcomb, South Geelong, Thomson and Whittington. NSW recorded 97 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. Victorians displayed enough collective adhesion to the strict public health orders that were in place to make those orders effective. Australians Upset With Government as COVID Cases Grow Amid Lockdown When asked about that decision today, Mr Foley said "most of those recommendations" were turned into orders, such as the rules around face masks. The best beach in Britain that you've never heard of: Seaside town is braced for tourism boom after Kate Garraway reveals Derek's heartbreaking words when they thought he had just minutes left to live. Cooper is disabled and immunocompromised. It is very strange to watch the rest of the world say we will go out and it will be fine and we will get sick and it will be fine. The Herald Sun reports the state government is holding high-level meetings this afternoon to weigh up whether to reimpose restrictions across Melbourne, with an announcement expected as early as Thursday. "That really reinforces the message that whenever you leave the house, you've got to assume you can come into contact with someone who is infectious with covid.". Lockdowns, mandates still on cards for Victoria - The New Daily The Herald Sun reports the state government is holding high-level meetings this afternoon to weigh up whether to reimpose restrictions across Melbourne, with venue limits and caps on home visitors among the options being considered. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. Many like Cooper have gone into self-isolation to protect themselves or a vulnerable loved one. Victoria adds 'outdoor recreation' to the reasons to leave home, allowing picnics for the first time since July. There are a number of issues we won't know until we have further data," she said. The federal government announces these measures, to be implemented by state governments: Australia closes its borders to everyone who is not a resident or citizen. While we should celebrate what went right, its much more important we look fearlessly at what could have been done differently. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. Were very keen to make sure we get a very firm grip of this as soon as we possibly can, Mr Weimar said. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the number NSW health officials are concerned about is how many people are spending time in the community while infectious. Feeling tense. Density limits will be reintroduced in Victoria from 11:59pm and it will become mandatory to reportpositive rapid antigen test results to the health department, in response to the state's surging Omicron outbreak. Which in normal times would mean nothing as Covid is not really any different from the flu. But before we do this, its vital we look back and learn every lesson we can so next time we are faced with such a crisis and there will be a next time we can do better. "I think they are a 2020/2021 iteration," he said. Which somehow seems fitting as things being out of order seems to be the way things are with Covid. The public servant, 25, contracted Covid along with 16 others at a house party late last month. The chamber is calling on federal and state governments to offer free RATs to small and medium-sized businesses, and suggestinga one-off payment equivalent to three weeks of support under the joint business packages released during previous lockdowns. The WORST care homes in England: Interactive map reveals the lowest-rated 2,530 residences - so is there one Do YOU know your Adam and Eve from your Ruby Murray? Mr Weimar revealed on Wednesday that the removalists were in Melbourne on a workers' permit but that they did not wear masks inside the apartment building. Thats no-ones fault, it is the nature of this virus and people are making their own choices, to not go out as much as they might have., To join the conversation, please Victoria goes into lockdown for the third time. Residents attending major events with more than 30,000 spectators will also have to wear a face mask. Of the new cases, 60 were isolation throughout their infectious period, seven cases were in isolation for part of their infectious period and 24 were infectious in the community. A scuffed copy of the Koran. Housing policies favour the rich and leave first home buyers high and dry. Extended Melbourne Lockdown to Keep Victorians Safe Around one third of businesses in Melbournes Chapel Street precinct have had to shut or reduce hours in recent weeks due to Covid-induced staff shortages. Covid-19 was first detected in Australia on January 25, 2020. Timelines of Melbourne's lockdown - Since the pandemic began The timeline This basic timeline provides start and end dates along with COVID-19 cases for each of the six lockdowns Melburnians have faced since the pandemic began Lockdown One: 43 days BEGAN: March 30, 11:59pm ENDED: May 12, 11:59pm It will also be mandatory to report the positive RAT result to the Department of Health through an online form or by phone, in areporting system the government said would go live on Friday. SBS reporter asked Ms Berejiklian if she was seeking advice from the Victorian government given they are the only other state that have dealt with an outbreak of this size, which they supressed with hard lockdown rules. This is clearly a very rapidly moving situation. COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria - Wikipedia The anxiety of past outbreaks has been replaced with anger at state and federal governments, and a growing sense of despair that the pandemic will not end, at least not any time soon. It remains to be seen how this unofficial lockdown will affect the Australian Open, which has only just begun in Melbourne. Some people are going to get chronic illness from that, and we are in our 20s, she says. As a sole trader, Chigwin wasnt eligible for government support in earlier rounds. You can find Tuesday's blog here. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. More than 90 per cent of those who had a positive RAT result, ended up with a positive PCR test, he said. Pictured: Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. 'Because Victorians went out and got vaccinated in record numbers, it means that we are not considering going into lockdown and this is the commitment that we gave to the people of Victoria,' he said. More than 2000 people who attended an MCG match between Carlton and Geelong on July 10 are also on alert after the game was attended by an infected person. Mr Andrews did not appear at Thursday's Covid press conference but did briefly interrupt his holiday to attend Wednesday's national cabinet meeting. A lot of people have gotten one or more of the various vaccines. Martin Radzaj says he has found the start of 2022 to be the most difficult time in the pandemic because of the utter confusion about what we should be doing. Victorias latest Covid rules have been labelled a shadow lockdown by the opposition which claims isolation rules, density limits and restrictions have smashed Melbourne businesses. Victoria on Thursday confirmed. Authorities confirmed seven cases were linked to a returned family and a crew of removalists, who both came into the state from NSW. And the Omicron variant, which has ripped through the country since December, appears to result in a less severe illness, in most cases, than previous variants of Covid-19. That's a higher turnout than the first day last year, when 17,922 attendees were recorded. "Were very keen to make sure we get a very firm grip of this as soon as we possibly can.". All times AEDT (GMT +11). Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has issued an ominous warning as the southern state prepares to come out of lockdown. The jump in cases in NSW - which is nearly 2,000 more than the 3,763 infections reported on Wednesday - comes after a major backflip on restrictions in the state with millions once again required to check into venues via QR codes. Over at worldometers we find some different numbers: The question is what has changed in the past few weeks to have led to this large increase in cases? University of Melbourne mobility analyst Rohan Byrne said mobility in Melbourne had "plummeted" to its lowest point since the last lockdown, even compared to previous holiday seasons. A fortnight ago on December 23, Victoria reported 2,005 new cases. "This is a hard lockdown. Dr Chant said one dose is helpful in protecting against hospitalisation but two doses i even more effective. And on Friday, they emerged from it with cheers, and a . One of the things that makes Victoria so vibrant is its a melting pot of cultures. While session tickets were capped at 50 per cent last week, the opening day saw 25,206 attendees on Monday. Victoria closes its borders with NSW. I know and understand that this is challenging and there is no family that has not been touched by that over the last few years and certainly many touched by that over the last few weeks and months, he said. It may be a new year but the lies and the fight against them goes on! When I have been asked for my opinion I have said that we will be free to have summer and then we will go back into lockdown in March. All of which makes me wonder if we are heading towards a summer lockdown.