Australia COVID-19 News: More Than 1,100 Health-Care Workers Infected, Victoria Imposes Fines To Enforce COVID-19 Isolation
Source: Australia COVID-19 News Aug 04, 2020 4 years, 3 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 4 hours, 10 minutes ago
Australia COVID-19 News: To date a total of about 18,730 Australians have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and 232 Australians have died from it. A total of 452 new cases was reported in the last 24 hours with majority of them being from the state of Victoria.
It is also reported than more than 1,100 Australian healthcare workers from Victoria have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 with some fighting for their lives in ICUs.
The State of Victoria has been placed under lockdown and curfew to curtail the spread of the virus but even then many locals are not abiding by the rules.
The Victoria State has since introduced fines as high as 20,000 dollars for people who breach their isolation orders.
Also Military personnel are being deployed to enforce COVID-19 isolation orders in Australia's Victoria, according to the state's premier, with anyone caught in breach of those rules facing fines as high as 20,000 Australian dollars ($14,250).
The new tough penalties on Tuesday came as Australia's second-most populous state struggles to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Victoria's premier, Daniel Andrews, told reporters that military and health teams had randomly visited more than 3,000 homes of people who should have been self-isolating because they had tested positive or were awaiting test results for the virus.
However in "more than 800 of those homes, the person who should have been isolating could not be found," Andrews said in Melbourne, the Victorian capital. "That is completely unacceptable."
Some 600 military personnel will this week be deployed to the state to bolster enforcement of self-isolation orders, the premier said, with fines of nearly 5,000 Australian dollars ($3,559) for breaching stay-at-home orders.
The only exemption will be for urgent medical care.
Victoria's premier said, "There is literally no reason for you to leave your home, and if you were to leave your home and not be found there, you will have a very difficult time convincing Victoria police that you have a lawful reason.”
He said that repeat offenders face a fine of up to 20,000 Australian dollars, he added. Australia has recorded nearly 19,000 COVID-19 cases and 232 fatalities, nearly 12,000 of them logged in southeastern Victoria.
Victoria's premier has declared a state of disaster across the state and imposed a nightly curfew from 8pm to 5am for six weeks in Melbourne.
Just today, Victoria reported 439 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours.
Andrews said 11 people had died from the virus since Monday, bringing the state's death toll to 136. The virus has spread significantly through Victoria's elder care facilities, with many of the deaths among the elderly.
Victoria state officials said the latest wave of COVID-19 infections has been driven by residents refusing to adhere to restrictions on their movements.
Lisa Neville, Victoria Minister for police said, "There are a number of people who have knowingly breached the curfew, so some
body who decided they were bored and they were going to go out for a drive, somebody who decided that they needed to buy a car after 8pm last night.”
With growing concerns that many people feel they have no choice but to continue working after a COVID-19 diagnosis, Australia said on Monday it would pay people in the state 1,500 Australian dollars to stay home if they were ordered to and they do not have leave entitlements.
To date, many internal state borders have been closed, keeping the new wave of infections predominately limited to Victoria, with neighboring New South Wales (NSW) reporting the next-highest number of cases.
New South Wales on Tuesday reported 12 new cases, though all the cases can be traced back to known outbreaks, some of which were started by infected people travelling from Victoria.
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