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Victoria has recorded zero new local coronavirus cases, as debate rages over the vaccine rollout and health officials warn it may not be possible to rein in another outbreak of a similar scale to the state’s second wave.
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Daniel O’Brien said new infectious variants of coronavirus had proved much more difficult to control.
He said Victoria had “managed amazingly” last year to get a major outbreak under control but did not know if it would be possible to do so “next time around”.
“So, therefore you need a layer of defence,” Associate Professor O’Brien said, citing mask wearing, people getting tested when they had symptoms and using QR check-in codes as examples.
He said people were previously considered at risk of catching coronavirus if they had spent 15 minutes face-to-face with a positive case, or more than an hour in the same room.
The new Delta and Kappa variants that drove recent outbreaks across the nation posed a risk to people entering a room within 20 minutes of an infected person leaving.
The number of active cases fell to 31 from 34 on Wednesday.
COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said on Wednesday that only nine of the active cases were from the state’s own community outbreaks.
The state on Tuesday recorded one locally acquired coronavirus case, who was a close contact of another person who had tested positive. The new case spent their entire infectious period in quarantine, so there were no new exposure sites, authorities said.
No cases of coronavirus were recorded in Victoria’s hotel quarantine in the 24 hours to midnight on Wednesday.
More than 29,149 COVID-19 test results were processed in the past 24 hours, and more than 19,219 people received their coronavirus vaccine doses.
AMA says political leaders driving vaccine fears
Meantime, the nation’s peak medical group slammed political leaders for fuelling confusion over the vaccine rollout, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison stunned experts by offering legal help to doctors to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to people under 40.
The Australian Medical Association said Mr Morrison had “mangled” the policy change without enough consultation and sparked a dispute with state leaders that would increase vaccine hesitancy.
Mr Morrison announced the legal indemnity for doctors on Monday night.
The country’s vaccine advisory group, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), has reiterated that the Pfizer vaccine remains their preference for vaccinating people aged under 60.
It advises against younger Australians receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine “unless their circumstances press for that”.
ATAGI co-chair Christopher Blyth said the AstraZeneca vaccine was not “banned” for people under 60 and that young people should be discussing vaccination with their general practitioner as we all should be.
But he told the ABC he did not believe that young people should receive the AstraZeneca vaccine at this stage.
More to come
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