VICTORIA reached a major COVID-19 vaccine milestone on Thursday, with 90 per cent of people older than 12 now double-dosed.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed the “amazing achievement” on Thursday morning.
“Well done Victoria, fantastic stuff,” he tweeted.
“Victorians have done it tougher than anyone over the past two years … Victorians have earned every freedom they now once again enjoy – let’s keep going, Australia.”
Swan Hill recorded just one new case in the past week, bringing its active tally to just three – the least number of active cases since the middle of last month.
Victoria recorded 1254 new cases and five more deaths on Thursday.
There are now 310 infected Victorians in hospital, with 48 in active intensive care units and 31 on a ventilator.
“It’s encouraging that ICU numbers have dropped below 100 and we push on to 90 per cent double dose for 12+,” Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton tweeted on Tuesday.
“But the 19 lives lost are a real tragedy. There are legitimate reasons why a few individuals can’t be vaccinated, but 17 of 19 had no vaccines recorded. Entirely preventable.”
Long-term modelling shows the working-from-home revolution was likely to change how Victorians lived.
Based on a third of workers working from home two to three days a week by 2036, the Infrastructure Victoria report found Melbourne’s population would spread throughout the city and regional cities including Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.
The change hinged on people increasingly factoring in lower commuting times and costs and seeking a tree or sea change.
Infrastructure Victoria acting chief executive Jonathan Spear said people were more willing to tolerate longer commutes if only venturing to the office a few days a week.
“But access to major job precincts remains a factor in people’s housing choices, which means these dispersion effects occur in the immediate vicinity of Melbourne and big regional cities, but do not extend to other regional areas further away,” he said.
Meanwhile, Premier Daniel Andrews has called out aggressive customers following reports of “elevated customer aggression levels” in the state.
“That’s not appropriate for anyone to be abused in any way at work,” Mr Andrews told reporters on Thursday.
“I’d simply say people are doing their job, they are working as hard as they can playing their part to keep us safe.
“No one should be treated that way.
“They didn’t make the rules or create the virus, they are just doing their job.”
Swan Hill police told The Guardian they hadn’t received reports of customer aggression towards retail or hospitality staff.
Australian Retailers Association (ARA) chief executive Paul Zahra penned a letter to Mr Andrews highlighting “elevated customer aggression levels” in the state, and has called for improved consultation around vaccination protocols which have become “extremely challenging” for retailers to manage at short notice.
“Our members have reported thousands of incidences of customer aggression including many acts of significant violence towards retail staff – such as staff being beaten up, an instance of a boiling cup of coffee being thrown over a frontline worker and a shopping trolley being thrown at another,” Mr Zahra said.
“The reports of customer aggression are coming from a broad range of retailers – from department stores to hardware stores, along with small businesses and even charity shops, many of which have had to put security guards at their doors.
“The timing and the stop-start nature of the vaccine checking requirement, following freedoms experienced by unvaccinated Victorians, has been extremely challenging for retailers to manage.”
