We uncover the best of the city and put it all in an email for you. On Friday 7th January 2022, 21,728 cases were recorded in Victoria, However at 9.18am on Saturday 8th January 2022, the Victoria Department of Health twitted out that the number of new cases was 51,356. NSW announces more of its restrictions will ease, allowing people in the state to: Then-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian announces that from July 1, the following will be allowed: Victoria announcespostcodes 3038, 3064, 3047, 3060, 3012, 3032, 3055, 3042, 3021 and 3046 will go back into lockdown from July 2. 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. NSW records extraordinary 5,715 new cases two days before Queensland Covid cases double AGAIN to 369 as Annastacia Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Incredible footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russians in Bakhmut, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' 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. Here's everything we've learned from Melbourne's polarising e-scooter trials. Multilingual Australia is missing out on vital COVID-19 information. The deputy premier said the changes were 'modest measures' that would protect the state's health system from the recent surge in infections. 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. People in Melbourne start putting teddy bears in their windows for children to find on daily exercise walks. 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. Mr Southwick called for the government to extend the Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme for a further three months, to help thousands of small businesses avoid rent increases. The state recently reintroduced low-level restrictions in the wake of Omicron, including mask wearing indoors, density limits on hospitality and the banning of indoor dance floors. Australia has been the most locked-down country since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, but residents are growing frustrated with cases still rising. COVID 19 11:26am Jun 4, 2022 Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a lockdown of metropolitan Melbourne as the state records its largest daily increase in COVID-19 cases since t. It's usual to see a lull in public transport use over the summer holidays, and network and road upgrades have caused disruption to some services. 'Lockdown until 2022': Premiers ultimatum to Victorians - Yahoo! More than 10,000 Australians have now died of Covid-19. With daily case numbers in the tens of thousands, NSW health officialsand Victorian authorities are cautiously optimistic that the state has passed the peak of the current Omicron outbreak. Local lockdown orders are reinstated in the northern beaches. Timelines of Melbourne's lockdown - Since the pandemic began 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. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the number of people infectious in the community needed to drop before the lockdown could be lifted. And our society will be all the worse for it. Highpoint shopping centre has also emerged as an exposure site, with anyone who attended between on Friday night between 10am and 2pm urged to get tested. Coronavirus in Australia: Melbourne begins new shutdown For me the risk is too high, she says. Guardian Australia spoke to more than 40 people about how they were feeling at the start of the third year of the pandemic. The uptake of COVID vaccines by Victorians was nothing short of remarkable. The first Covid-19 vaccine doses are administered in Australia. Kylie*, a midwife working in Melbourne hospitals, says despite difficulties with testing and high case numbers there is cause to be optimistic. Lockdown orders end for Sydney's northern beaches. the song became the world's best-selling hit of 2022 . 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. Melbourne Lockdown Dates 2020, 2021 and 2022 Here's how likely you are to get it more than once, Charting the COVID-19 spread: Australia passes 10,000 coronavirus deaths, Self-help author Marianne Williamson launches primary challenge against Joe Biden for 2024 Democratic nomination, Chinese migrants walked a gruelling 500km to Victoria's goldfields in the 19th century. Sydneyannounces lockdown measuresfor suburbs across the cityas the Bondi outbreak grows. "It is very difficult to compare apples and oranges given the Delta strain and along the lockdown period in Victoria. 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. But will it be safer for women? Lotus lifestyle EV division to go public . COVID in Victoria: 262 days in lockdown, 3 stunning successes and 4 avoidable failures Published: December 16, 2021 2.11pm EST Hassan Vally Associate Professor, Deakin University Catherine. Context is important and needs to be factored into any critique. Australia's PCR testing sites have been overwhelmed by travellers trying to get tested before going on holiday. 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. "It is a true lockdown, but of course it wasn't announced and therefore we haven't entered it all at once, and because it wasn't announced or planned, we're not going to be able to exit it all at once either," he said. How did it come to this? As we reach the end of 2021 and cast our eyes towards 2022, we can begin to imagine what life in the post-pandemic world might look like. So which ones are best? one of the longest aggregate periods of strict lockdown, outbreaks that devastated the aged-care sector, Multilingual Australia is missing out on vital COVID-19 information. Key points: From Friday, Victorians must register their positive at-home RAT results on a government portal Health Minister Martin Foley said about one in 50 Victorians currently had COVID-19 Mr Foley said there was no plan to introduce a lockdown and that Victorians had to "coexist" with the virus He said the lockdown, which had "sort of emerged organically", would also bring with it different levels of anxiety, uncertainty and confusion for some people. But as the initial challenges with the vaccine rollout highlighted, theres still more work to do. On 26 September at 11:59pm, the 7 day Geelong and Surf Coast lockdowns ended as scheduled, but Mitchell Shire's lockdown was extended with no end date set. On the same day, three men in NSW also test positive for coronavirus. Victorian premier Dan Andrews announces that only two people may gather outside unless they are members of a household, as well as the only four reasons people are permitted to leave home: NSW health minister Brad Hazzard announces that there are 16 reasons to leave home in NSW. Don't have an account? Asked if the removalists had been deliberately evasive, Victoria's Covid-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said: "They're not being deliberately forthcoming, let me put it that way.". It has fully vaccinated over 92% of those aged 12 and above at the time of writing. Like everyone else, we just have to muddle through on our own.. The above numbers came from the same article here. "And that trend is something that we're seeing all across the city.". 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. Victorians are anxiously waiting to see if they will be plunged into yet another lockdown, as the state government weighs fresh restrictions amid a worrying rise in Covid-19 cases brought in from NSW. Until today I had not thought that that was a serious option, now Im reconsidering. Oct. 22, 2021. With that in mind, lets look at what went right, and wrong, in Victoria amid the pandemic so far. Some people are going to get chronic illness from that, and we are in our 20s, she says. The three new cases are all believed to be linked to the apartment building where the removalists worked without face coverings. A fortnight ago on December 23, Victoria reported 2,005 new cases. The areas of concern are Fairfield local government area, Roselands, Rosebury, Canterbury, Belmore, Sutherland shire, the St George area, Windsor, St Ives, Penrith and Bayside local government area," she said. We currently have mask restrictions and in the Northern Territory there is an even more draconian lockdown than we had in Victoria. "It is important for us to assess all the advice we have which will be based on data and that will take us the next two weeks to make that assessment," she said. "Were very keen to make sure we get a very firm grip of this as soon as we possibly can.". Melbourne COVID testing centres have been busy.Scott McNaughton Mr Morrison said on Tuesday that Australia would not go back into lockdowns, but a recommendation from the country's chief health officers for using masks in indoor settings was "very sensible". Vulnerabilities such as understaffing and inadequate training have been known for decades and were largely swept under the carpet. '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. It was no surprise for those of us familiar with the Victorian health department that at times it struggled to cope during the pandemic. And please, do not leave your home unless it is absolutely essential.". Other business owners say they are finding this summer more difficult than previous seasons because there was no financial aid available. Extended Melbourne Lockdown to Keep Victorians Safe National Cabinet agrees that the states will close: Melbourne distiller Gypsy Hub is the first (that we know of) to pivot to making hand sanitiser. Despite enduring one of the longest aggregate periods of strict lockdown in the world, the Victorian community by and large hung in there. Read more: Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. 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. Revealed: The top 10 fastest-growing destinations for UK pensioners retiring overseas. The strengthened settings will see a curfew imposed from 9pm to 5am every night. "We really are all in this together and the data proves it.". The first person in Australia to die of Covid-19 dies in a Western Australia hospital. Victoria's roadmap out of lockdown is announced. Northcote woman Phoebe* is also feeling a sense of arrested development. Premier Peter Gutwein said with a highly vaccinated population Tasmania would not be heading into lockdown or closing its borders because of the climbing case numbers. Are we set to have a third lockdown for 2021. "I think they are a 2020/2021 iteration," he 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. He owns a series of ecotourism huts in the New South Wales Blue Mountains and lost the 2020 summer holidays to bushfires and 2021 to coronavirus. Australia COVID Omicron update: How coronavirus situation unfolded in Face masks are mandatory in all indoor settings in Victoria, except private homes,for anyone aged eight or over. In that way, he predicted it would differ to the "U shape" of mandated lockdowns, with a longer tail in and out. Hassan Vally does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Victoria goes into lockdown for the sixth time. The NSW government cancels all major events of more than 500 people. Sydneyis released from lockdown on 'freedom day'. AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), abc.net.au/news/covid-restrictions-tighten-in-victoria-to-slow-spread-of-omicron/100741342. There are more women with the virus who are having babies, but unlike 2021 they are not gasping for breath, she says. His mother's pitiful public apology. PETER HITCHENS: Now we know for sure that our leaders lost their heads over Covid. 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 "Now with further information and further data available to us and after consultation with a wide range of groups I've made this decision thinking it to be an appropriate, necessary and proportionate balancing of competing demands.". There were three initial cases earlier this week, that leaked in from NSW. Were very keen to make sure we get a very firm grip of this as soon as we possibly can, Mr Weimar said. Up to five visitors to a household at any one time. Despite the efforts of the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, a new unit specifically formed to bring these outbreaks under control, hundreds of elderly people died unnecessarily. 2022 was supposed to be different, but It feels exactly like there is a lockdown. Two had travelled to Wuhan, China, and the third was a close contact of the two travellers. Deakin University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. Living in Victoria the last couple of years has been really tough. Under the testing change, those who test positive on a RAT will be considered "probable" cases and must isolate immediately for seven days and notify their contacts. Switching to rapid antigen would slash these numbers and stop testing sites being overwhelmed by the 'worried well' and delay testing for those who are feeling sick. Melbourne has endured the world's longest cumulative time in lockdown, . 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. @newscomauHQ pic.twitter.com/Bq8oMG9FID. In doing this, the objective is not to blame. There are confirmed positive cases on board at the time, and 130 people test positive within a week. Earlier, one locally acquired case was announced before a press conference at 11.30am where a further seven cases were announced. Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. 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. Victoria on Thursday confirmed another 2,005 new infections and ten deaths - up from the 1,503 cases recorded on Wednesday. (ABC News: Peter Drought) Although many issues were eventually rectified and Victoria finished up with one of the best hotel quarantine systems in the country, the failing was in the leadership model and how responsibilities were delineated. 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. 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. "Interaction in those environments is close, it's crowded, it's active and it's mobile. 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 As the Covid years continue we are losing our magical thinking it will go away and not be a changing burden to our life, she says. Victoria COVID: No lockdowns but Omicron could cap Open crowds to avert There are growing calls for Greater Sydney to be placed into a hard lockdown similar to the one imposed in Melbourne last year, but chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant insists NSW is already under "hard" restrictions. Retail shops like Bunnings are closed for the first time. Milly*, a young woman from Melbourne, says that two years of going in and out of lockdown has caused a downshift in her lifestyle that feels akin to being retired. Its another slap in the face to business owners that have suffered through two years of harsh restrictions.. She went into self-isolation two weeks ago. Two years [living in a pandemic] is very different to five years when you only get three good months every year.. This brings the total number of infections in NSW to 864. Consequently, there is an urgent need to reflect on the journey and to address issues that have been raised so we can be on the front foot and do even better next time. A lot of people have gotten one or more of the various vaccines. 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. Victoria recorded seven new cases early on Wednesday. ABC host Patricia Karvelas said Melbourne residents were "on high alert again". His wife was the second. Try another? I cannot stress this enough that everyone needs to take it seriously as hard lockdown," she said. While we should celebrate what went right, its much more important we look fearlessly at what could have been done differently. The government has also announced a raft of "strong recommendations": that people take a RAT before visiting aged care facilities and hospitals, and work from home until late January. Sydneysiders who live alone are permitted to establish a 'single's bubble' with a friend. Mr Foley said "such high levels of transmission" meant Victorians had to "coexist" with the virus. A Victorian-based consultant told Guardian Australia they were still receiving commercial rent relief until this week. Panic buying leaves supermarket shelves bare, leading the prime minister to urge calm and compassion at the shops:There is no issue with food supply in Australia, but there is an issue with the behaviour of Australians in supermarkets.". Many issues quickly became clear, such as the understaffing of aged-care centres and infection control practices, along with the lack of the proper accountability by government for these facilities. 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'Shadow lockdown': Dan responds to critics - news "If you're fully vaccinated then your life will be back to normal, you'll be able to enjoy all of the things that you have yearned for and miss and desperately worked so hard for," Mr Andrews said as the state arrived at its 90 per cent vaccination target. 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.'. The 'winter shot': Everything you need to know about getting your next COVID-19 booster, If you catch COVID again, will your symptoms be worse? Welcome to the Coronation! 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. 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Victorians are anxiously waiting to see if they will be plunged into yet another lockdown, as the state government weighs fresh restrictions amid a worrying rise in Covid-19 cases brought in from NSW. Crises expose weaknesses, and theres no doubt the pandemic revealed a number of issues in Victoria. 'Confidence lost' as Victoria enters fifth lockdown Also invalidating is the implication, from some public health messaging and public responses to death announcements, that a disease is less devastating if most of its victims are people who have pre-existing conditions. 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. Victorian COVID-19 rules tighten with density limits and mandatory Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. Catch up on the latestCOVID-19 news here. A timeline of Covid-19 in Australia as 10k milestone passed . AUSTRALIA LOCKDOWN - The Economic Times Worried. 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. Covid-19 case numbers are on the increase across the state with 2,005 new infections and ten deaths reported on Thursday. COVID in Victoria: 262 days in lockdown, 3 stunning successes and 4 Covid 19 coronavirus: Melbourne goes into 'circuit-breaker' lockdown While resources were poured into the department to cope with the unprecedented demands during the pandemic and some structural changes were made most notably the creation of local public health units more work undoubtedly needs to be done. Dj vu! "I dont think it is fair to compare because every state has different circumstances at a different way of dealing with the virus.