Hospital praises community for lockdown efforts
South West Healthcare chief executive Craig Fraser has thanked and praised everyone for hunkering down during the government's five-day COVID circuit-breaker.
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"Our communities continue to pull together when it comes to fighting the spread of this contagious virus. I'm glad this latest positive result allows all of us - healthcare services, local businesses, schools, communities - get back to living our COVID Normal lives' he says," he said.
"From midnight, patients in SWH's Warrnambool and Camperdown Hospitals and residents at its Camperdown aged care facility Merindah Lodge will, again, be able to receive visitors.
"This follows Premier Daniel Andrews' announcement earlier today that as of 11:59pm tonight Victoria will largely return to COVIDSafe Summer restrictions."
The following local visitor restrictions commence at midnight:
- Warrnambool Base Hospital and Camperdown Hospital: Restrictions of two visitors per patient between the hours of 11am-2pm and 4-7pm each day of the week. Visitors will be screened as they enter the building and provided with a single-use mask to be worn while onsite. Visitors can be of any age.
- Emergency Department: An adult patient can have one support person with them for as long as they like, and visit them as often as they like. Two parents/guardians are welcome to accompany patients under-18.
- Paediatrics Unit: Two parents/guardians can be with their child during an inpatient admission. One parent/guardian can stay with their child overnight.
- Midwifery Unit/Maternity Care Services: Your partner/support person can stay/visit for as long and as often as you like. The same restrictions as those at the Warrnambool Base Hospital apply for all other visitors. Pregnancy care appointments: Your partner/support person can attend your routine pregnancy care appointments and ultrasound scans.
- Warrnambool Mental Health Services Acute Inpatient Unit: The same restrictions as those at the Warrnambool Base Hospital
- Palliative Care Unit: A maximum two people can visit a patient at any one time. Unlimited visiting hours as determined by staff.
- Camperdown Hospital: The same restrictions as those at the Warrnambool Base Hospital.
- Merindah Lodge: Visits are by appointment only (please call (03) 5593 7366 to arrange). One visitor per resident per day between 11am-6.30pm. Visits can last for up to two hours and can include children under 16. Visitors will be screened as they enter Merindah Lodge and will be provided with a single-use mask to be worn while onsite. Visitors must produce evidence of current flu vaccination. Additional restrictions may also apply.
- Symptomatic screening clinic: The Warrnambool Respiratory Assessment Clinic (RAC) continues to run for people who have, in the absence of an alternative diagnosis that explains the clinical presentation, symptoms such as fever or chills OR acute respiratory infection such as a cough, sore throat, shortness of breath or a runny nose. Call 5563 166 between 8am-4pm Monday to Sunday to speak with one of the RAC nurses.
Warrnambool new home handovers delayed due to lockdown
Update 12.40pm: Delaying the handover of two new homes was the toughest part of the five-day lockdown for the team at GJ Gardner Homes Warrnambool.
"We were really disappointed," director Andrew Womersley said.
Mr Womersley said there would be flow-on effects for the construction industry, with deliveries halted during the lockdown.
South-west sport set to return
Update, 12.10pm: Sport across the south-west can return from Thursday after the state government announced the five-day "circuit breaker" coronavirus lockdown will come to an end.
The key changes from midnight on Thursday is sport and recreation activities can resume again, with density quotas in place.
Premier: Five-day lockdown to end but some rules remain
Update, 10.30am: Victoria's five-day 'circuit breaker' lockdown will end at midnight tonight as planned, but Premier Daniel Andrews says some rules will remain in place.
There are 25 active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria.
Nearly 40,000 tests were received in the last 24 hours, marking the "single biggest" testing turnout in the state in 12 months.
"I am pleased to announced this will be a five-day short, sharp circuit breaker," Mr Andrews said.
"Restrictions will come off at midnight tonight.
"This is not over, there are still nine days to go of the 14-day period of the last of the positive cases."
From 11.59pm tonight the four reasons to leave your home falls away, as well as the five-kilometre limit on travel.
Masks will still be required indoors and outdoors where you cannot socially-distance at 1.5 metres.
Only five visitors will be allowed to your home until Friday week.
Key changes in Victoria from midnight tonight
- Masks will still be required in all indoor settings and outdoor settings where 1.5 metres of socially distancing cannot be maintained
- Visitor restrictions inside households will now be at five (instead of 15 last week)
- Up to 20 people can gather in public
- Up to 50 per cent of public and private sector workforces can return to the office
- Schools will reopen
- Retail and hospitality will also reopen with the same density limits as last week.
- Religious gatherings and ceremonies will be able to resume with the density limits that previously applied.
- Funerals will have no limits on numbers but need to meet the venue's density limits indoors and outdoors and the same applies for weddings
- Sport and recreation activities can resume again, with density quotas in place
- Entertainment and public events will have caps
- One household may visit somebody in hospital once per day
There is expected to be further changes announced to the new rules on Friday next week, depending on case numbers.
"It isn't our intention to do this again. We would only ever do it again if the advice was that so much more was at risk than the price you would pay for a short and sharp circuit breaker lockdown," Mr Andrews said.
"Victorians can be certain about me following the advice of the experts in science and I will make difficult decisions, whether they are popular or not."
3400 people are in isolation from 46 exposure sites.
130,000 people have been tested in the last five days.
The Premier warned "this is not over."
"I'm not prepared to pretend to the Victorian community that this is over, there can be some notice period but we don't have the luxury of giving people a month's notice.
"I'm just not in the business of ignoring advice, or shopping around for advice that suits me. The only thing that suits all of us is to keep control of this.
"In this outbreak we've had around 66 close contacts for every case."
"This is not over" says CHO
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says the true picture of coronavirus infections in Victoria will not be clear until the 14-day incubation period is over.
"Everyone loves a day of zeros, but the incubation period is 14 days," he said.
"There are literally thousands of people who have been potentially exposed to infectious cases. They need to see out their quarantine period.
"Most people will be symptomatic, will test positive in the first week, but a proportion may yet develop illness in the latter part of the quarantine period.
"There may be people who still haven't checked the exposure sites, who have been exposed, aren't aware and may develop symptoms today, tomorrow or the next day. Everyone needs to be aware of that and test if they have any symptoms at all."
Earlier, 9.40am: five-day lockdown is set to end at midnight tonight after no new cases were found overnight.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to speak further to the easing of restrictions after 10am.
The Department of Health found no new cases in the last 24 hours from almost 40,000 tests.
Premier Daniel Andrews warned on Tuesday that it was unlikely the state would return to the old rules immediately.
"We'll still have to get tested if we have symptoms. We'll still have to wear masks in a number of settings. There will still be limits to the number of people that can come to your home," Mr Andrews said.
"We are looking to get back to as close as to what that kind of resting COVID normal was, as we can. But we've got to do it safely."
International flights into Melbourne have been diverted during the lockdown, and the state government has confirmed flights will not resume on Thursday.
Mr Andrews said authorities are looking at constructing purpose-built quarantine accommodation outside of central Melbourne, based on the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory.
It comes as COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria confirmed a "small group" of employees move between hotels and another office.
Managers, executive staff and clinical leaders work for Healthcare Australia, the group that provides medical services for "cold hotels", travel between their St Kilda Road office and quarantine hotels on some days.
"These staff members may be required to enter a green zone in quarantine hotel to oversee HCA teams on site, but there is no requirement for them to enter a red zone or have contact with residents," a CQV spokeswoman told AAP.
A key recommendation of Victoria's hotel quarantine inquiry interim report stipulated that "every effort must be made to ensure that all personnel working at the facility are not working across multiple quarantine sites".
More to come.
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