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As Victoria surpasses 1,000 daily Covid-19 cases for the first time ever, premier Dan Andrews has begged Melburnians to stick to the rules for a little while longer until 80 per cent of Victorians can be fully vaccinated.
He said many of the transmissions that had led to the state recording 1,438 cases overnight had occurred because people were illegally visiting other people's homes, particularly over the Grand Final long weekend. "Many of these cases were completely avoidable," said Andrews.
Covid-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said "What is different today is that the activity five or six days ago was quite different. The contact tracers tell us that there were significant numbers of social gatherings over Friday and Saturday. Grand Final parties. Barbecues... That has now translated into at least an additional 500 cases above what we expected to see today." Weimar pointed out that last weekend's road data showed more people were driving than on any other weekend since lockdown began and that a third of today's cases were in households that had never had Covid-19 before. Just 7 per cent of the new cases today had been fully vaccinated.
"Today is a significant setback in how we manage this pandemic," said Weimar. "This is a direct consequence of hundreds of decisions made last Friday and Saturday."
Andrews said once the state reopened at 80 per cent full vaccination, Victoria's medical system would have to cope with a rush of cases. "That's the price of us opening up. Our hospitals are going to get very very busy." But he urged Victorians to keep those numbers as low as possible by sticking to the rules and staying away from others until that time. "Let's not do anything that means more virus," Andrews said.
Additionally, Victorians who receive a Pfizer vaccination can now get a second appointment within three weeks from the first, rather than the six that had been required. Those appointments can be brought forward from October 4, when the state online booking system will allow people to change appointments and make second appointments three weeks after first appointments.