Melbourne looks set to end its two-week lockdown as planned, but public health officials are reportedly seeking to continue restrictions.
Reports in The Age and Herald Sun suggest holidaymakers will be one of the hardest hit as a new travel bubble will prevent Melburnians from escaping to regional Victoria for the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
The Age reports that a source close to the government confirmed Melburnians won’t be able to travel more than 25 kilometres from their homes after the city comes out of lockdown at 11.59 pm on Thursday.
The newspaper said senior cabinet ministers met on Tuesday night to discuss a path to eased restrictions.
The ministers will meet again on Wednesday morning to finalise the details before an announcement is made later in the day.
It’s likely Melbourne will have to follow the same rules currently in place for regional Victoria.
That includes the mandatory wearing of masks indoors and strict caps on public gatherings.
It’s also expected schools will return to face-to-face learning from Monday.
Meanwhile, regional Victoria is set to have restrictions eased further as most businesses have been able to reopen except for gyms.
Acting Premier James Merlino announced the state was “on track” for eased restrictions after just two new cases were recorded on Tuesday.
Both were linked to existing infections.
Because the virus has not yet been eliminated from the community, there remains a “significant risk” with restrictions easing, said the head of Monash University’s Epidemiological Modelling Unit, James Trauer.
“So what I believe the health department is going to do is to balance releasing some restrictions to allow some businesses to function, against the risk of continuing outbreaks,” he told the ABC.
“And that’s a really tricky decision to make.”
Dr Trauer said the “gamble” of slowly opening up paid off in 2020, and would likely pay off again.
“I think we’ll have to do what we did last time round, which is to maintain some restrictions for several weeks,” he said.
Authorities scramble to work out missing connection
On Tuesday, health authorities linked Melbourne’s Delta outbreak to a man in his 40s who returned from Sri Lanka on May 8.
It was found that while infected with the Delta strain, he mistakenly opened his room door soon after entering hotel quarantine in Melbourne.
But Emma Cassar, the head of COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria, said this incident is unlikely to be the reason for the Delta variant spreading.
Genomic sequencing shows his infection is identical to one of two families linked to the North Melbourne Primary School, which has emerged as the epicentre of the West Melbourne outbreak.
But it remains unclear how the virus was transmitted from the returned traveller – who lives in the suburban Glen Eira area in Melbourne’s southeast – to the infected family.
Health authorities are now scrambling to work out the connection.
“The last 24 hours have been a flurry of activity … to make sure we cover off all bases,” Ms Cassar told ABC radio.
Victoria’s deadly second wave of COVID-19 last year was sparked from leaks in hotel quarantine, leading to a major overhaul of the system.
-with AAP
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