- Victoria’s Premier has announced five more contact tracing centres will be established, amid criticism from the Federal Government
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his cabinet have condemned Daniel Andrews response to COVID-19, and the state’s ongoing lockdown
- Health Minister Greg Hunt today said Melbourne will be in lockdown longer than Wuhan — the epicentre of the virus
- The Victorian Premier is under pressure to re-open the state, by increasing contact tracing of COVID-19 patients
- But, Daniel Andrews has rejected the criticisms and any comparison between Victorian and NSW’s handling of the pandemic
The Victorian Premier has announced five new contract tracing centres will be established in the state, following sharp criticism from the Federal Government.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his federal colleagues have condemned Daniel Andrews for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tracing
Amongst his attacks, the Prime Minister took aim at Victoria’s record of tracing coronavirus cases by implying NSW’s contact tracing program was superior.
“The most important thing is ensuring that we build an integrated tracing capability right across the country that enables a country to remain open despite the threat of outbreaks,” Scott Morrison said on Monday.
“NSW is the gold standard. That is where we have to get everybody to, to ensure that Australia can be open,” he added.
In response to the criticism, Premier Andrews has announced new contact tracing teams will be established across Victoria’s north, south, southeast and west and they’ll aim to interview anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 within 24 hours.
Currently, 90 per cent of people diagnosed with coronavirus in Victoria are contacted within a day, but the new testing teams will hopefully boost that number higher.
However, the Premier has rejected any comparisons between the Victorian and NSW Government’s response to the pandemic, specifically the two state’s use of contact tracing teams.
“I don’t accept that at all. The key point here is with the amount of community transmission that we’ve got, with the number of cases that we had, a more centralised model worked and that’s not a matter of my opinion,” he said.
Lockdown
The Prime Minister also took umbrage with Premier Andrews decision to extend Victoria’s stage-four lockdown restrictions for an additional two weeks, labelling them “crushing.”
Health Minister Greg Hunt echoed those comments, stating in an interview today that Melbourne will have been in lockdown longer than Wuhan — the epicentre of the virus.
“I think Wuhan was under lockdown for two and a half months. Believe it or not, Melbourne will be under lockdown for three-and-a-half months,” he told Nine.
“I think that will as astonish people when they see that comparison,” he added.
But, Premier Andrews has again smacked down the criticism and said without the stage-four lockdowns, Melbourne would be recording thousands of new COVID-19 cases.
He also directly addressed the Prime Minister and rebuked his comments that Victoria’s planned lockdown extension was a “worst-case scenario.”
“I’d say to the Prime Minister the worst-case scenario is being open for three or four weeks and then closed down again. That’s the worst-case scenario,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.
“The only way to go is to do this in safe and steady steps. We’d all like to be able to open everything up tomorrow. We could do that and there’d be 15 minutes of happiness and then we’d be back in lockdown and arguably facing an even worse situation than we face now.”