A Covid-19 warning sign on the grounds of the Essendon Football Club at Essendon Bombers AFL Headquarters. Photo / Quinn Rooney, Getty Images
A Covid-19 warning sign on the grounds of the Essendon Football Club at Essendon Bombers AFL Headquarters. Photo / Quinn Rooney, Getty Images
Australia's second most populous state has re-imposed coronavirus restrictions after a surge in cases brought about through community transmission.
Authorities in Victoria have dropped the number of people allowed inside a household back down to 5 from 20, after the state reported spikes in cases for five-days in a row.
Police will also begin patrolling coronavirus hotspots once more and punishing those found in breach of regulations. The state had shifted to merely warning rule-breakers.
The government has also extended its state of emergency for at least one more month.
Victoria has now had 1836 total confirmed cases, a quarter of the cases in Australia, since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted.
Some 210 cases in the state are known to have spread through the community, rather than being brought in by travellers.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told The Age that authorities were extremely concerned about family gatherings, which have played a key role in the surge in cases which followed a period of stability.
Minister for Health, Jenny Mikakos and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (left) give an update on the states response to Covid-19 at the State Emergency Centre. Photo / Getty Images, file
"Just because you can do something does not you mean you should do it ... Yes, you have been able to go to local shopping centres, you have been able to go to cafes, you have been able to do many things in recent weeks ... but it's important to understand that in Melbourne, in particular parts of Melbourne, we have many confirmed cases," she said.
Premier Dan Andrews had been criticised for his cautious approach to lifting restrictions, including re-opening schools, but his fears appear to have been realised with rising case-numbers since the state started to ease its Covid-19 rules earlier this month.
The Victorian government announced it would halt any further move to ease current restrictions on movements and gatherings.
Australian Football League player Conor McKenna, at Victorian club Essendon, became the first to test positive for Covid-19, potentially exposing teammates and opponents to the disease.
The player's positive test led to the indefinite postponement of his team's scheduled match on Sunday, and could possibly lead to the cancellation of the season, which recommenced last weekend after an almost three-month hiatus.
The surge in Victoria has alarmed other states, which have had few, if any, new cases for several weeks. Queensland and Western Australia, which shut their borders in March and April respectively, said they would weigh Victoria's situation before reopening.
"But the last thing we want to do is lift the borders, have lots of people come here, for example for school holidays, spread coronavirus in our state and then force us to go backwards on restrictions," Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said.
Despite Victoria's surge, health officials see no need to require face masks. They would have limited value in a country where absolute numbers of transmission remain "very low", said Australia's deputy chief medical officer, Nick Coatsworth.
Avoiding hugging and kissing was "arguably far more important than, say, wearing masks", he said.
Four other states and territories are now essentially Covid-19 free.
Tasmania has joined South Australia, Northern Territory and the ACT as having zero active cases.
The ACT first reached zero known active cases on April 30. It recorded one new case four days later before returning to zero for most of May. It confirmed another new case on June 7, returning to zero known active cases on June 17.
SA first reached the milestone on May 16, but 10 days later recorded one new case. It returned to zero on June 4.
The NT has had no known active cases since May 21.
The Australian death toll remains at 103, with confirmed virus cases since the initial outbreak topping 7400 on Friday.
Active cases are calculated by taking total case numbers and deducting recovered cases and deaths.
Despite a positive picture emerging from these four areas, nationwide there has been a rise in the number of active cases to 412 after months of steady declines.
There were 2306 active cases of Covid-19 on April 19 but the numbers fell every week as recovered cases outnumbered new ones.
However, this all came to an end on Sunday when the numbers hit a low of 380.
Active cases nationwide rose to 382 on Monday, 389 on Tuesday, 398 on Wednesday, 412 on Thursday, according to figures compiled by the federal government.
This spike is being largely driven by outbreaks in Victoria, with the majority of them stemming from security guards at a hotel with quarantined travellers, leading to a sudden increase in new cases and concerns about community transmission.
Meanwhile, the number of active cases in NSW has been largely steady over the past week. It rose from 308 on Saturday to 314 on Sunday and has varied from 317 to 319 in the days since.
