Acting Premier James Merlino grilled about why Victoria in a situation where fourth lockdown needed
Merlino #Merlino
Victorian officials haven’t directly answered questions about why the state is in a position where it is entering its fourth major lockdown in 12 months.
Acting Premier James Merlino copped the grilling from reporters after announcing a seven-day “circuit breaker” lockdown across Victoria starting from 11.59pm on Thursday.
It comes after four cases first cropped up in Melbourne’s outer north on Monday, but by Thursday soared to 26, sending the state into its second lockdown in five months.
There was one tough question during Wednesday’s press conference that Mr Merlino failed to answer directly.
“We have had 12 months to get this right. No other state has been in this position. We are not special. Every state has bars and areas where it is easy to transmit virus. Why is Victoria in this position and why are Victorians the ones paying the price?” a reporter asked.
Despite Victoria being the hardest hit with lockdowns since the pandemic began, Mr Merlino insisted the state was “not unique”.
“We have had breaches out of hotel quarantine across the country. We have had community transmission across the world. This is a global pandemic where millions and millions of people have died. We are not unique,” he replied.
“Where we are unique is the work we did last year, all Victorians, in defeating the second wave.
“We need to deal with the reality of this outbreak that originated as of a hotel breach in South Australia.
“We need to deal with a reality that a vast majority of our community in this country are not vaccinated, and that means that we need to have these circuit breaker lockdowns.”
Again, when quizzed about whether the government should “admit some faults in this”, the Acting Premier instead blamed a quarantine breach in South Australia.
“We are continually proving how we respond to the pandemic and I go back to the work that our contact traces have been doing with this particular outbreak that originated from a hotel quarantine breach in SA,” he said.
“If you combine a highly infectious individual with high risk transmission settings – bars, clubs, and particular workplaces where 10 per cent of the workforce has returned a positive result – when you have highly infectious people operating in a higher risk settings we do have transmission.”
Another reporter asked: “Victoria is the only state that has fought lockdowns of this kind so far. Why are we getting contact tracing so wrong?”
Chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton answered: “It is an absurd proposition that contact tracing has gone wrong”.
“We have talked about exactly what the contact tracing team have done here and it is extraordinary. Contact tracing is an integral part of how to get control. It does not do magic.”
Health authorities are racing to contain the outbreak as the city of Whittlesea cluster as exposure sites across Melbourne and regional Victoria balloon beyond 80.
From 11.59pm on Thursday Victorians can only leave home for five reasons.