Former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth said it was disproportionate to expect kids in schools to take on extra measures. “It’s hard to see how an intervention in a school is going to save an 80-year-old in an aged-care facility, particularly when there is no strong evidence that such a measure would change the epidemic curve,” Dr Coatsworth said. “By contrast, ensuring fourth doses and early access to diagnosis and antivirals for Victorians over 65 is guaranteed to save lives.”Infectious diseases physician Peter Collignon said the focus needed to be on arming vulnerable cohorts with vaccinations.“I don’t think it’s warranted for kids, who get less severe infections than adults and their adults are more likely to get infected,” he said.“Health departments have always got a duty to give advice, but at this point in time with this level of mortality – about one in 1000 – it would be unreasonable to bring back harsh restrictions. “It’s time to get off scaring everybody.“You can’t rule anything out fully, but on the data we’ve got in front of us, it would seem very improbable and unreasonable to implement any tough restrictions.”Victorian Principals Association president Andrew Dalgleish said some parents were sending their children to school in masks “out of caution” but teachers were not forcing others to wear masks.Deb James, general secretary of the independent Education Union, said many schools had made short-term arrangements in response to increasing transmission rates in their communities, such as encouraging mask wearing or asking parents not to enter school grounds. Acting Premier Jacinta Allan on Thursday refused to rule out renewing mandates, saying that would be speculating on a “hypothetical” and “premature”.“What we’ve got to focus on is giving that clear advice to the Victorian community – wearing masks indoors if you can’t isolate, going out and getting vaccinated if you’re eligible,” she said.Ms Allan said schools could make their own decisions about rules such as mask wearing “based on what’s happening to staff and students”.Leading business groups are urging the state government to rule out mandates on masks and working from home.Opposition Leader Matthew Guy renewed his pledge to guarantee no more lockdowns, mandates, home schooling or work-from-home edicts if elected in November.“Victorians deserve a clear plan forward that they can have confidence in,” he said.Property Council of Australia Victoria director Danni Hunter said Covid procedures had been honed “to a fine edge”.“The time for these highly controlled measures has passed,” she said. “Now is the time for government to demonstrate its confidence in the Victorian community.”She added: “We strongly caution against an overreliance on work-from-home directions as we know it takes months for people to return to the office.”Australian Industry Group Victoria head Tim Piper said business needed certainty.Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Paul Guerra said current measures that keep the economy moving and businesses open were important, while Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra said mask recommendations, rather than mandates, were the “right approach”.Snap Print and Design manager Paolo Castellazzi said he was worried his Docklands business would lose more work due to uncertainty around potential future restrictions.“At the moment I am quite nervous because you start to hear the same kind of words and feel the same signals that there were before,” he said.“Hopefully it’s not going to happen but the government has started talking again about working more from home, mandatory masks … it’s tough for us because if people are not coming to the city they are not coming to Docklands.”NED-5250-Victoria’s Covid-19 statisticsMORE HOSPITALS MOVE TO CUT ELECTIVE SURGERYSeveral Melbourne hospitals – including the Royal Children’s – have chosen to delay some elective surgery, as the third Omicron wave continues to place the healthcare system under strain.It comes after an internal memo released to staff at The Alfred hospital on Thursday warned the facility would cut elective surgery during the Covid winter surge.A Royal Children’s Hospital spokeswoman said levels of demand, high acuity patients and staff illness were all increasing, impacting wait times and some planned surgeries.“We assess our ability to perform planned surgeries each day depending on the clinical priority of any emergency patients who have presented overnight, bed availability and staffing levels,” she said.“Unfortunately, due to these impacts, some patients will have their surgeries deferred and we sincerely regret having to make these decisions.“We always prioritise patients with the most critical need.”Western Health oversees services including Bacchus Marsh, Sunshine, Footscray and Williamstown hospitals, and acting executive director operations John Ferraro said increasing cases of respiratory illness had led to “a very high demand”.“Some non-urgent surgery has been deferred due to the increasing number of patients hospitalised with Covid,” he said.Visitor restrictions will also be tightened from Friday, but he said exemptions were in place including for palliative care.A St Vincent’s Hospital spokeswoman said they had two Covid wards and had needed to reduce bookings for some elective surgeries which require overnight stays.“Outpatient appointments and our elective surgery program continue with no changes to day surgery or emergency surgery,” she said.An Austin Health spokeswoman said the hospital is still performing category one, two and three surgeries but “is also continuing to review demand for other services”.The Herald Sun understands the Northern Hospital is still offering category one, two and three surgeries while a Royal Melbourne Hospital spokeswoman said they were “continuing category one and urgent category two surgeries”.A Monash Health spokesman said the most acute and urgent patients will always be cared for first.“This may require changes to our planned surgery, and we continue to work with our private hospital partners to ensure there is maximum access and minimum disruption.”Meanwhile, The Alfred hospital on Thursday announced it would also defer some elective surgery to prioritise the most critical patients.An operational update said category one – the most urgent type of elective surgery – would continue within their 30 day time period, alongside some short or same day procedures such as cataract surgery.“It is essential that emergency services like our trauma, transplant and burns service are maintained,” the update stated.Australian Medical Association (AMA) Victoria president Dr Roderick McRae said hospitals were over capacity.“My observation is that pragmatically every health service is quietly doing it,” he said.“Hospitals are broken.”He said while category three, which includes procedures such as endometriosis removal or hip replacements, may not relate to life threatening conditions, people can still be in significant pain.“You’re not going to die from it, but you’re not enjoying life, it’s a disability,” he said.“The risk is that all of these things that might have been done … pre-emptively as elective surgery, then float around and suddenly become an emergency.“How bad does it have to get?”A Health Department spokeswoman said they were investing billions to address increased demand. “The next few months are going to be tough for every health system across the country – with Covid demand not going away and ongoing demand from influenza and other respiratory issues, trauma or deferred care,” she said. “The department continues to work closely with health services to monitor pressure and demands, and provide support to generate more bed capacity and prioritise resources, including through our Health Service Response Centre.”
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