'Brazen disregard': Victoria's Covid cases grow after illegal parties
Victoria has recorded 22 new Covid cases as a shocking video of dozens of maskless people celebrating at an illegal engagement party makes the rounds on social media.
Police are investigating the Melbourne gathering, which was filmed by a reveller and showed a man joking about the state's Covid lockdown in a speech.
"Clearly this is legal as a group therapy session. That's why my father's here," he said.
Authorities are concerned it could become a super-spreader event after two guests, a woman and her adult son from St Kilda East, reportedly tested positive to the virus after attending.
Former Labor MP and member of the Jewish community Philip Dalidakis condemned the footage, saying he was "speechless" and "genuinely shocked".
"I am speechless. I am genuinely shocked at the brazen disregard for our laws," he posted on social media.
"Not one person in the video should be there, not one person in the video is using masks, not one person in the video is considering the selfish impact their behaviour is now having.
"I hope those in the video are all fined the maximum amount and dealt with in the strongest possible terms. They should be ashamed."
Also over the weekend, more than 200 people gathered for a street party in Northcote and dozens congregated for a takeaway-drink pub crawl event in Richmond on Saturday. Cops have vowed to crack down on illegal parties.
Engagement party video sparks death threats
The family who hosted the illegal engagement party in Melbourne have asked for forgiveness after being bullied online.
The family say they have been "subject to intense cyber bulling", ABC reporter Bridget Rollason posted to Twitter on Monday.
"We did wrong, but the hate coming out way is just so mean. So far we are all isolating & have received negative results," she quoted the family as saying.
She also claimed they had received death threats since the video was shared on social media.
The post has since been flooded with hundreds of angry comments.
"I still don't feel sorry. They only feel sorry coz they get caught," one person said.
"They arrogantly made their beds. Let them lie in them for a while," another wrote.
"I'm sorry but they are only remorseful because they got caught, they openly joked about the breaking the rules," a third said.
The family who hosted the illegal engagement party says they’ve been subject to intense cyber bullying. “We did wrong, but the hate coming out way is just so mean. So far we are all isolating & have received negative results.” They’ve asked for forgiveness @abcmelbourne #springst
— Bridget Rollason (@bridgerollo) August 15, 2021
Victoria's Covid cases grow
Victoria's 22 new cases on Monday have furthered fears the state's lockdown could continue for months.
The health department confirmed 17 of the new infections are linked to known outbreaks and 14 were in quarantine during their infectious period, meaning five are mystery cases.
Premier Daniel Andrews said on Sunday the number of mystery cases were too high to reopen.
With AAP
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