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TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2021
GIPPSLAND
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health restrictions until the state’s Delta outbreak was terminated. On Saturday, Premier Daniel Andrews remarked the state was “well-placed” to have the lockdown lift, but noted the situation was “dynamic”, and things may rapidly change. Mr Andrews said he hoped to make a change that applied to “the whole state”, implying there will be no regional-metropolitan divide as in previous lockdowns. Masks are likely to remain until the state hits its target vaccination levels, but the Premier flagged getting children back to school and removing the five reasons as priorities in the lockdown lift. Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton added testing numbers would need to remain high in order for health authorities to make the call to
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Coastal calls for better lockdown enforcement
Lockdown nears end WHILE we might soon escape lockdown 5.0, it seems Victorians may be living under tight restrictions for some time yet. At the time the Gippsland Times went to print yesterday morning, no decision on ending Victoria’s lockdown had been announced yet. However, after days of recording new local cases linked to known outbreaks and isolating for their entire infectious period, the state was poised to be released from lockdown tonight from 11.59pm. The initial five-day lockdown announced on July 15 was extended by another week as initial movement restriction failed to stem the spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus in the community. Yesterday, multiple media sources were reporting despite the state’s imminent end to lockdown, Victorians would be facing months of tight public
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Local police check vehicles in Stratford to ensure compliance with COVID-19 restrictions, as well as traffic offences, at the weekend.
Photo: Eyewatch - Wellington Police Service Area Facebook page
end lockdown. Health authorities also expressed concern that an anti-lockdown protest of about 3500 unmasked, unvaccinated people which took place in Melbourne’s central business district at the weekend could actually achieve the opposite of its aim, and extend the state’s heavy restrictions if there was any spread. Yesterday morning, the Health Department reported 11 new, locally acquired cases of COVID-19 — all linked to known outbreaks and in quarantine for their entire infectious period — after the same figures were reported on Sunday. Sunday’s case numbers included a third positive case of COVID-19 in Wellington Shire, but Gippsland Regional Public Health Unit assured Continued page 6
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RESIDENTS in one of the Wellington Shire’s popular tourist hot spots are calling for better enforcement of lockdown rules, after dozens of tourists, believed to be from Melbourne, visited during the travel ban. Several groups of people are suspected to have spent the past two weekends in holiday accommodation in Loch Sport, and have come to the attention of local shop owners and residents. One resident, who did not want to be named, said a large group of up to 12 young adults had been heard in several shops boasting about being from the northern suburbs of Melbourne, and had not been wearing masks or socially distancing. A Loch Sport shop owner said the same group of young adults was even captured on security camera on Saturday allegedly taking items they did not pay for, and had not followed COVID-safe protocols. Several other holiday makers known to be from Melbourne have also been sighted around town, residents say. The incidents have been reported to police and the COVID hotline, however it is unclear if they are being investigated. “We know where this large group of young adults is staying, because we saw them at a house we know is a holiday house, and we know from what they have been saying that they are from Melbourne’s northern suburbs,” the resident said. “They’ve been to the local coffee shop, Continued page 6
There’s a silver lining to every cloud We’ll be back better than ever! HAIR IS KANYEMBA Raymond Street, Sale
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