Sixteen young people fined for organising a party in the city centre, sixty people stopped without masks (one of them, a woman from Frankston, violently assaulted a policewoman), while a resident of Sunshine was intercepted 14km from his home, in the centre from Melbourne, while playing Pokemon Go, and got a $1652 fine.
- 172 people fined on the first day of curfew
- The introduction of "Italian-style" self-certifications is imminent
- Victoria has two thirds of all national infections
Premier Daniel Andrews acknowledged that most Melburnians have followed the rules imposed by the state of disaster and the streets of the CBD have indeed taken on a ghostly aspect. But on the first day of the so-called Phase 4, there were unfortunately several exceptions.
The Premier conceded that one of the problems concerns the presence of some gray areas, starting from the definition of essential workers. Because on that depends the right to mobility of thousands of people.
The state government reiterated that it is moving towards self-certification, as was the case in Italy between March and May. All those who travel more than 5 km from their home must fill a form - a worker permit - to be shown to the authorities if stopped by the police.
As for the numbers: yesterday there were 429 new cases in Victoria. At the moment, almost 12 thousand (11,937) have been recorded across the state, 6500 of which - about half - are still active.
Across Australia, there have been just over 18,000 infections since the start of the pandemic - therefore 2/3 of all infections are in Victoria. 416 people were hospitalized and of these 35 were in intensive care. Currently, the victims are 136 in Victoria alone out of the 221 across Australia. 13 people died in the state on Monday.
But what matters most is that the numbers have doubled in the last month. That is, on July 8 there were less than 9 thousand cases across Australia. Now, four weeks later, it's 18,000. It must be said that, according to state health authorities, the July lockdown avoided around 20 thousand infections.
As Melbourne faces its second state of disaster day (although some of the announced packages and measures are yet to come into effect, while others are still in discussion), the government has announced a new package for workers, with payments of $1,500 for all those (not protected by the JobKeeper) who will lose their jobs during this period.
According to forecasts the figures should be around 250 thousand.
Meanwhile, from Thursday some businesses - factories, shops and service companies - will close their doors, while others will see their activities and staff reduced drastically. No more than 25 workers may work on construction sites.
Supermarkets, pharmacies and post offices will continue to operate at full capacity. As for cafes and restaurants, takeaways and home deliveries are allowed, but limited to the allowed times. Between 8pm and 5am.
