The number of active Covid cases in Victoria has risen to 22,598 after a further 1841 positive results were added to the tally in the past 24 hours following 78,928 tests.The Department of Health announced a further 12 people had died of the virus.New data shows Victoria is on track to hit the 70 per cent vaccination threshold on Thursday.The latest federal data shows 69.28 per cent of Victorians aged over 16 were now fully vaccinated after a 1.28 per cent increase in the past 24 hours.Overall, 89.21 per cent have received at least one dose.In the past day, 38,881 vaccines were administered.With Victoria preparing to reopen after the world’s longest lockdown, the state is set to ditch hotel quarantine for passengers arriving from overseas.Passengers on a London to Melbourne flight will take part in a home quarantine trial next week.The “special flight” arriving at Tullamarine on October 27 will see passengers isolate at home for seven days instead of spending a fortnight in a hotel room, according to reports.The trial will be the first step towards removing hotel quarantine arrangements for fully vaccinated travellers and follows New South Wales’ announcement international arrivals in Sydney would no longer have to quarantine from November.It’s understood returned travellers in the Victorian trial will be monitored by a phone app that uses location technology and facial recognition to ensure they stay in their homes for the seven days. The Victorian government is expected to make an announcement on the trial later this week. VAX BUNGLE TO HURT CAFES, RESTAURANTS, BARSUnvaccinated Victorians will be locked out of pubs, clubs, retail stores and major events – including next year’s Grand Prix – for many months to come.The extended lockout comes despite NSW planning to dump vaccination passports from December 1.It comes as the Herald Sun can reveal the jab mandate is set to cause havoc on the hospitality industry, with many eateries forced to push back their reopening date amid serious staff shortages. The Department of Justice and Community Safety incorrectly advised that workers only needed to have one dose to be able to work, and be fully vaccinated – in line with the authorised worker jab mandate – by November 26.But Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday overruled that, maintaining that hospitality staff needed to be fully vaccinated by Friday.Vic Locally-acquired Covid-19The bungle has forced Luke Stepsys, who owns the Panama Dining Room and Feast of Merit, to push back his reopening date, as many staff are yet to be vaccinated.“I’ve had to push my reopen back a week because many of my workers haven’t had their second dose yet because they were working towards the later date,” he said.Small Business Australia chief Bill Lang said the “shifting, changing and complicated” policies were the last thing that traders needed.“NSW has not been perfect, but one thing they have been is a state that has continued to work to get businesses open with simpler and fairer conditions and Mr Andrews and his Professor would do well to follow their playbook rather than to invent ridiculous rules that continue to fail our small business families,” he said.It comes as Mr Andrews failed to offer a date of certainty that would see freedoms align for both vaccinated and non-vaccinated Victorians. He did, however, confirm the state would not follow NSW and lift the vaccine mandate at the key 90 per cent double-dose milestone.“That doesn’t make any sense to me in any event and we won’t be doing that here,” he said.“I’m not going to say to someone, ‘just wait it out, just wait for five weeks, and then you will be able to go the pub’. No. If you make the judgment to not get vaccinated, and you reckon you can wait out us or the public or whoever you want to think you are waiting out, you won’t wait out the virus.“I can’t put a date on (when the lockout would lift) … but it won’t be anytime soon. This will be well and truly into 2022.”Mr Andrews also declared those who refused a Covid jab would likely be refused entry to the F1 Grand Prix, scheduled to be held in April. Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive Andrew Westacott said the event would follow all directions set by the government. “The Grand Prix’s Covid-safe event plan will be fully modelled on directives and guidelines from government and aspects relating to items such as QR coding, vaccination requirements and any other emerging requirements will ultimately all form part of the conditions of entry,” he said.Opposition leader Matthew Guy said Victorians were owed an explanation as to how long the vaccine mandate would last. “We can’t have Victoria, the second largest state by population and NSW the largest state by population on vastly different laws to manage Covid for months and months and months,” he said.NED-4588-VIC-roadmap-out-of-lockdownMORE TRAM SERVICES DISRUPTEDTram services will be disrupted on Wednesday and Thursday after a driver at the Malvern Depot tested positive for Covid-19, forcing a “large number” of Yarra Trams’ staff into isolation.A number of services on Routes 5, 6, 16, 58 and 72 will be cancelled with a lower-than-usual frequency.It is expected disruption will continue for several days as drivers who are not close contacts return negative results and are cleared to return to work.“We are working to support staff, and exercising an abundance of caution in the interest of tram drivers, other employees and passengers,” the Department of Transport said in a statement. “Yarra Trams will endeavour to provide as regular a service as possible across the affected routes.”RULES EASE FOR TRAVEL FROM NSWDouble dosed NSW residents can skip testing and quarantine measures when entering Victoria after health authorities announced all red travel zones across the northern state will be downgraded from Wednesday. All Greater Sydney local government areas, including Blue Mountains, Wollongong and the Central Coast, will become orange zones, while areas previously deemed orange zones will be classed as green zones. Broken Hill in NSW and Shepparton in Victoria will also rejoin the NSW-Victoria cross-border community area.Red and orange zones in regional NSW government areas will become green zones.It comes as West Australian Premier Mark McGowan confirmed the state would not reopen its border to Victoria, NSW and the ACT before Christmas.He said he would not follow Queensland’s lead by reopening the border ahead of the festival season, as it could prompt “all sorts of measures to restrict people’s activity, fun, excitement”, such as masks.LIVE-THEATRE BLOCKBUSTERS RETURNHarry Potter and the Cursed Child is the first of Melbourne’s live-theatre blockbusters to announce a return to the stage.The award-winning two-part play will reopen at the Princess Theatre on November 18.“More than ever, Melbourne wants to go back to the theatre and see great stories being performed on stage,” said Ben Walter, who plays Albus Potter. Aisha Aidara, who stars as Rose Granger-Weasley, added: “I’m just really excited to work with, and see, people again. It’s been a long time to try to stay productive.”The show opened in early 2019 and resulted in a record-breaking first year of performances. But the pandemic and Melbourne’s brutal lockdowns meant the stage production was dark for most of 2020, and long stretches of 2021.Harry Potter’s Broadway and West End producers, Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender, said in a statement: “We can’t wait to be all back in a theatre together, sharing stories, making memories and creating magic for the audiences in Melbourne.“As we prepare our return to the stage, we want to thank our cast and crew, who have weathered the past few months. The continued support for the Australian production of Harry Potter has been overwhelming.”Tickets are available for performances from November 18 to March 27 at HarryPotterthePlay.comPerformances from November 3 to November 17 will be rescheduled due to ongoing restrictions.Meanwhile, Moulin Rouge is yet to announce a date for its Melbourne premiere, and Frozen the Musical, which opened in July, is also expected to reboot soon. Walters said he tried to keep active and engaged during restrictions.“Lockdown is inherently sedentary, but I walked a lot, took bike rides, and did the occasional hateful run,” he said, laughing.National – 2021 – Covid Vaccination StatsJUSTICE STAFF COURT IN THE MIDDLEVictorian court staff will face a strict new “no jab, no job” policy.It comes after the state government was this month forced to wind back its own mandatory vaccination order after it was realised it had no power to force judges, MPs or commonwealth employees to be jabbed.Under directions subsequently published by the chief health officer, commonwealth employees or people who work in connection with court proceedings were exempted from the mandate.Court Services Victoria (CSV) staff were advised this week that any employee who is or may be required to work away from home would need to be vaccinated. Judges and magistrates will remain exempt as they are not CSV employees.Chief Justice Anne Ferguson has said each jurisdiction would continue to minimise the number of people physically attending court premises by conducting a large proportion of matters as remote hearings.NED-4476-Covid-19-Vaccine-Rates-Melbourne
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