COVID-19 pandemic declaration extends

VICTORIA’S pandemic declaration has been extended for three months amid rising COVID-19 cases across the state.

In a Government statement released mid-last week, Premier Daniel Andrews said he was satisfied COVID-19 still posed a serious risk to public health.

The extension started 11.59pm on 12 April and last through to 12 July.

“This extension enables us to keep modest and sensible settings in place to reduce transmission and hospitalisation,” Mr Andrews said in the statement.

“We don’t want rules on any longer than they need to be. We’ll continue to follow the advice to protect what we’ve built while protecting our community.”

A statement of reasons for the decision, along with the health advice, will be tabled in the Victorian Parliament.

The announcement came after Health Minister Martin Foley flagged the state could drop its COVID-19 vaccine mandates in restaurants, cafes, pubs and nightclubs once the latest wave of infections, expected to peak within weeks, began to dip.

The state’s hospitals are bracing for 500 or more patients a day with the virus at the height of its Omicron BA.2 sub-variant outbreak, according to Mr Foley.

However, overall daily case numbers are harder to predict because of factors including the number of people getting tested and those who are asymptomatic.

With cases still rising through April, Victoria will not yet be following Queensland’s lead from 14 April by dropping the vaccine mandate for hospitality venues.

But Mr Andrews indicated that could be revisited once infections start falling again.

“Let’s get through these next few weeks, let’s get past this peak in sub-variant Omicron cases and then we’ll have options,” he said.

“One of those, hopefully, will be dealing with things like the vaccinated economy and all sorts of other rules.”

Mr Andrews last year flagged Victoria’s vaccinated economy would remain in place until at least this weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix and possibly throughout the whole of 2022.

Despite immunity waning over time, he said the double-dose vaccine mandate for hospitality patrons has helped mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and should stay for now.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, who returned to state parliament on Tuesday after isolating as a close contact of his COVID-infected nine-year-old son, said it was time to move on from vaccine mandates in most settings.

“It’s about time we moved on with our lives, sensibly,” he said.

– BY AAP