Covid Victoria: Daily cases above 2,000 for second day in a row
Victoria records 2179 new cases of Covid-19, six deaths
Vaccine mandate kicks in
Victoria has recorded back-to-back days of coronavirus cases surpassing 2000 after 2179 were reported on Friday morning.
The health department added six more people have died.
It is a slight decline from Thursday which saw Victoria record 2297, which stands as a national record.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Thursday plans to reopen, at least at this stage, will not change despite the spike in infections.
"We have, fundamentally, a very important agreement with the Victorian community: you get vaccinated and we will open up," he said.
Once 70 per cent of the state is fully vaccinated, which is expected to be achieved in about a week, Melbourne's hard lockdown will end.
Vaccine mandate kicks in
A Covid-19 vaccine mandate has kicked in for Victorian authorised workers, with all now needing their first dose or a scheduled booking to keep working on site.
The Victorian government gave the state's 1.25 million authorised workers a fortnight to get at least their first coronavirus vaccination by Friday - or show proof of a booking within the next week - otherwise they would be stood down.
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They must then be fully vaccinated by November 26, and there are limited medical exemptions.
When the mandate was announced, most authorised workers in the state had already been partially vaccinated but it was estimated hundreds of thousands had not.
The public health order covers retail workers, personal trainers, journalists, faith leaders, judges, police, lawyers, actors, professional sportspeople and many other professions.
Tim Piper, the Victorian head of the peak employer association Ai Group, said "V-Day" was creating huge issues and some business were contacting it to report workers were refusing to get vaccinated.
"The workers have often been in their jobs many years, they may be key people in the business," Mr Piper said.
"Skilled and experienced employees are at a premium and some businesses are at their wits' end trying to decide what to do."
He reminded employers they must send the staff home if they don't comply with the order, and employees are not entitled to be paid unless they agree to take any accrued annual leave or long service leave.
with AAP
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