Calls for more pro-active approach to COVID clusters for regional Victoria

A more targeted and pro-active approach to locking down COVID clusters and outbreaks needs to be developed rather than hurting regional communities, according to Member for Narracan Gary Blackwood.

Mr Blackwood said businesses were “going to the wall” and the impact of locking down a state had to be minimised.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Blackwood said there was no COVID infections in regional Victoria.

“So why would you continue to hurt people that are being locked down for no logical reason other than a line on a map chosen by some faceless bureaucrat and endorsed by a minister who probably does not even know where these towns are?”

Mr Blackwood supported comments by Deakin University epidemiologist Catherine Bennett who said there was no evidence why the restrictions should apply to regional Victorians.

Ms Bennett said a statewide lockdown put everyone in quarantine and if regional Victoria was being closed because Melbournians couldn’t be trusted to do the right thing, then it was the wrong reason.

Mr Blackwood said the state government needed to be more targeted and pro-active in minimising the impact of locking down communities.

“We are now talking about businesses going to the wall.  We have to target the virus but minimise the impact.

“People who choose to do the wrong thing will do it regardless but these lockdowns are penalising more people than needs to be.

“To make the whole state suffer for something that might happen is ridiculous,” he said.

In the latest outbreak, Mr Blackwood said he accepted there was initially a concern the virus may have spread from regional exposure sites.

“But, once that proved to not be the issue, regional areas should have been exempt,” he said.

Easing restrictions in regional Victoria will not be held up by coronavirus cases in Melbourne, according to Health Minister Martin Foley.

Speaking in a video hook up on Thursday, Mr Foley told The Gazette the government was keen to align restrictions in Melbourne with regional Victoria, but any delays in that process would not prevent regional areas from advancing faster.

Mr Foley said regional restrictions would be eased in a careful, cautious manner based on health advice.  

He said there needed to be a high level of testing and a strong response to vaccinations.

“This will get us to where we want to be where we were before with 86 days of no cases and open across all borders.

“People with only the slightest of symptoms need to get tested and isolate until get a negative result, if eligible get vaccinated.

“Further easing (of restrictions) next week is a day-by-day proposition,” he said.

He defended the regional lockdown because exposure sites had been widespread, including in regional Victoria.

“A careful cautious approach protects regional Victoria,” he said.

Mr Foley said future health measures in relation to lockdowns were dependent on the hotel quarantine system and vaccination rates.

“With two to three per cent fully vaccinated and about 20 per cent partially vaccinated we are a long way from that,” he said.

Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing said lockdown was always a last resort.

She said the health advice had been released multiple times at press conferences with acting Premier James Merlino.

“We know that lockdowns are necessary in certain circumstance where the virus cannot be contained to geographic areas,” she said.

Ms Shing said the Black Rock cluster in December didn’t have the spread of the current outbreak so lockdown was not necessary.

“But in this case there were regional exposure sites.  The health advice has been where there have been exposure sites, particularly of the newer variants, and particularly where people are coming together and dispersing again like in service stations and supermarkets, then lockdowns are necessary.

“They are not a measure that are taken lightly.  In fact, they are a last resort and no-one is under any illusions of the impact they have had on our entire state, including regional Victoria,” she said.

Ms Shing said as a regional member she had argued strongly for the right balance to be struck between public health and the economic impact on household and business finances.