Coronavirus Victoria: Daily cases remain under 150, eight more deaths
Victoria’s daily coronavirus infections have risen on Tuesday yet remain below 150, offering further evidence Stage 4 restrictions are suppressing the virus in the community.
The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed 148 new cases while a further eight deaths.
It follows 116 cases and 15 deaths the previous day.
The state’s death toll now stands at 438 while there have been 525 deaths nationwide.
Victoria has recorded 145 deaths in the last 10 days.
Tuesday’s victims are two males in their 70s, four females and one male in their 80s and one female in their 90s. Seven of the eight deaths are linked to aged care facilities.
On Monday, Premier Daniel Andrews said he would be seeking to extend the parameters of Victoria’s State of Emergency which under the current Public Health and Wellbeing Act is due to expire on September 13.
His proposal, which would give the state government the opportunity to extend the State of Emergency to September 2021 in their fight against the coronavirus, has since faced resistance from several politicians.
Premier takes to Twitter to defend proposals
Mr Andrews took to Twitter overnight to defend the proposal, which would need to pass through parliament.
"Extending the State of Emergency is about ensuring that we can legally make the changes our health experts need to keep us safe," he said.
Mr Andrews said his government would no longer be able to dictate guidelines on mandatory mask use, isolation rules and business density limits without an extension.
"This does not change how long our current lockdown will last, or increase the restrictions we face."
Reason Party MP Fiona Patten called the move an “overreach” and called on the Labor government to reduce the extension to a maximum of six months.
On Monday the Department of Health and Human Services set live an online data dashboard to allow people to monitor outbreaks and active cases in their local communities.
More to come.
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