Almost all Victorian Covid patients in intensive care on Friday were unvaccinated, Cabinet Minister Danny Pearson has revealed.Mr Pearson said there were 738 people in hospital with the virus, of which 130 were in intensive care, including 85 on a ventilator.“Of the cases in hospital, 86 per cent were not vaccinated, and of those in the ICU, 94 per cent were not vaccinated,” he said.Ten lives were lost to Covid in the past 24 hours, including a man in his 40s, a man in his 50s, a man and a woman in their 60s, a woman in her 80s and five women in the 90s.Victoria recorded a total of 1656 new cases and 10 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours. The state now hosts 23,730 active cases.More than a third of Victoria’s new coronavirus cases reported on Friday were aged under 20, chief health officer Brett Sutton has revealed.Professor Sutton said there had also been a significant increase in cases in the 20 to 40-year-old age group.“Of yesterday’s new cases, 37 per cent were aged under 20,” he said.“Essentially in that under vaccinated but rapidly higher vaccine coverage population of the 12 to 17 year olds, but also those not yet eligible for vaccine aged under 12.”Professor Sutton said higher cases were again reported in Casey and Greater Dandenong, while decreasing numbers continued in the west and north of Melbourne.He said there were 46 cases in Latrobe in regional Victoria, 35 in greater Geelong and 49 in Wodonga, where both NSW and Victorian authorities are battling a significant outbreak in the cross border community.“We’re sending two more testing teams to Wodonga to assist over the weekend,” Professor Sutton said.“It’s been a really strong response to testing. They’ve been more than 14,000 processed across Albury Wodonga in the past week, which is really tremendous.“And we’re supporting Albury Wodonga Health to further expand their testing capacity in the week ahead.”More than 30 Covid testing sites and six vaccination clinics have been closed across Victoria after wild weather swept the state.Chief health officer Brett Sutton said the sites had been temporarily closed and urged people to check the health department’s website before venturing out.“We’ll be contacting people who’ve got a vaccination schedule that has to be deferred for a little bit longer,” he said.“We’re obviously working very hard to get those sites back online as soon as possible. But we do appreciate your patience as we do that.”He said some of the sites closed included the Cranbourne Turf Club, Sandown drive through clinic, Frankston Bayside clinic, Melbourne Showgrounds, the drive thru component at Melton and Wyndham Eagle stadium.‘FREEDOM FRIDAY’ AS 80PC TARGETS LOOMSThe state will be whole again from Friday night, as the border between Melbourne and the regions comes down, retailers throw open their doors and the state celebrates its first true taste of freedom.With the state on course to reach its key 80 per cent vaccination target, the regions will finally open up to metropolitan Melbourne up again from 6pm.Thousands of Melburnians are expected to flock to regional Victoria to celebrate the unofficial Melbourne Cup long weekend.Shopping centres, retail stores, cinemas, entertainment venues and gyms will also reopen, while pubs, restaurants, hairdressers and beauticians can host more patrons.Outdoor events including weddings and funerals are now able to host 500 fully vaccinated people, and masks will no longer be mandatory outdoors. Community sport will also resume.Despite Melbourne’s world-record lockdown ending last week, business groups are heralding the day as the real “Freedom Friday”.Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said: “Let’s pop the champagne corks, hug our loved ones, and finally close the door on this chapter that, thanks to everyone’s incredible efforts and dedication, we will never have to revisit again.”Australian Industry Group Victorian head Tim Piper said the weekend would provide the “release valve” that so many people had been desperately waiting for.“The past week it has felt like we were on parole, still being watched over and questioned, “ he said. “In fact, freedom day last week was virtually an apparition, but this week, it’s for real.“You will hear the valve open all over the state.”MELBOURNE’S NEW RULES FROM 6PM The suffering retail industry, which has been closed for 12 weeks, is preparing for a flood of shoppers, with many precincts set to trade past 9pm.Victoria’s largest toy store, Toymate, will open two new stores – in Nunawading and WaterGardens – for the first time on Friday. “It feels like the rainbow after the storm,” CEO Danny Bloom said.Fleur Brown of the Australian Retailers Association said: “Many retailers in Melbourne have been shut longer than anywhere else in the world, but there’s a lot of pent-up demand, so we’re optimistic of a strong bounceback.”Bunnings is gearing up to welcome back its famous sausage sizzles in a bid to boost community fundraising activities halted by the lockdowns.Meanwhile, with highways out of the city set to be bumper-to-bumper with holiday-makers, Victoria’s top cop Shane Patton said police would show discretion if people were caught fleeing Melbourne before 6pm.Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief Felicia Mariani said: “This day, which is a vitally important and firm step in our recovery, was not supposed to come for some time, so it was perfect timing as we are heading into a self-made long weekend.”Victoria’s Covid ruleLOCKDOWN IRKS INMATESPrisoners fed up with being locked down in their cells are threatening to take Premier Daniel Andrews to court if they do not get a “road map’’ out of their harsh Covid restrictions.Growing frustration within the prison system in the past month has been blamed on a cell fire at Port Phillip Prison and a fracas at the Metropolitan Remand Centre leading to a 14-day unit lockdown.Inmates are demanding to know when contact visits will resume and want better access to Zoom meetings with family and legal calls.Vic Locally-acquired Covid-19SUBSIDY CALL ON RAPID TESTSmall and medium businesses should have access to free rapid antigen testing to ensure they remain open as the virus spreads. An alliance of peak business bodies, unions and the transport sector has demanded state and federal governments fund the rapid tests. They argue that the move could boost business confidence for struggling industries, protect supply chains already under severe pressure, and help maintain high testing numbers.“Rapid antigen tests are an essential tool for workplaces to identify Covid-19 before it enters the workplace,” the alliance said.Pathology Technology Australia modelling suggests the cost of supervised rapid antigen testing will be between $18-49 per test, while unsupervised testing could cost $20 per test.WHERE TO GOGH ONE STARRY NIGHTMelbourne’s latest cultural coup – a permanently-housed fully immersive digital art gallery – opens on Monday.The Lume Melbourne, a 3000sq m gallery space soaring four storeys high, is based at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. It will launch with van Gogh, a study of Dutch postimpressionist Vincent van Gogh.The multi-sensory gallery, similar to venues in Paris and Tokyo, is the only permanent art house of its kind in Australia. John Brumby, chairman of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Trust, and former Victorian premier, said: “The Lume is a big, fresh, new major event for Melbourne. It’s a big feather in our cap. It will complement the other great assets and attractions we’ve got in Melbourne, such as the NGV, and it’s going to excite a lot of people about art.”Port Melbourne company, Grande Experiences, created The Lume Melbourne and the van Gogh event. The company has staged more than 200 experimental art events including Monet and Da Vinci in 150 cities, to 18 million visitors.“Melbourne gives us such a huge canvas to work on,” Gary Moynihan, the company’s head of creative design, said. “It puts Melbourne … at the forefront of immersive art shows.”The van Gogh show will match the painter’s works to music and scents.
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