There are now COVID-19 infections at five prisons in Victoria, with 36 prisoners testing positive for the virus.

Corrections Victoria said in an update on Tuesday that 16 prisoners had tested positive at the Melbourne Assessment Prison, 11 at the Metropolitan Remand Centre, five at Ravenhall Correctional Centre, three at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and one at Port Phillip Prison.

COVID-19 survivor says virus stripped her of dignity

A COVID-19 survivor spoke at Tuesday’s press conference about how the virus stripped her of her dignity when she was in hospital with the illness, leaving her unable to go to the bathroom or wash herself in an intensive care unit.

Kim, a 49-year-old Newport resident, said she contracted COVID-19 from her cleaner last July, as did her husband, despite wearing masks and staying in a different part of the house when the cleaner visited.

“By day 11, I continued to be bedridden, unable to sleep with body aches and pains that not even strong pain relief could mask,” she said.

“It was during my daily COVID call with [the Department of Health] that I was unable to talk properly, [and] they thankfully realised how unwell I was and advised [me] to call an ambulance straight away.”

Kim later found out that her lungs had collapsed and spent six days in an intensive care unit, followed by nearly a week isolated in a hospital room.

A couple of months after returning home, Kim said her hair unexpectedly fell out: “I lost about three-quarters of it over a six-week period,” she said. “Pre-COVID, I had no underlying health conditions and was a reasonably healthy woman.

“Fourteen months later, and I feel like I’ve aged 10 years. I’m still feeling the long-term effects of COVID.

“My fitness has been severely impacted. I have brain fog at times and fatigue [and I’m] taking a lot more effort to do the same daily activities. I feel a lesser version of myself due to this horrible, debilitating disease, which makes me sad for my boys.”

Kim urged all Australians to not “play Russian roulette with your health”, or the health of “those you love”.

“Please get vaccinated,” she said.

Loading

Latrobe to exit lockdown, Andrews says road map on track

Although some of Tuesday’s cases were in the Latrobe Valley, the seven-day lockdown of the regional area in Gippsland will end at midnight on Tuesday evening, Mr Andrews confirmed.

“There are some new cases in Latrobe today … but we feel that we have a good understanding of that outbreak, and we can move Latrobe back to the regional Victorian settings from midnight tonight,” Mr Andrews said.

“So I’m very grateful to everybody across the Latrobe City for the contribution they’ve made.”

On Monday, more than 96,000 people booked in to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Victoria, 82,000 of which were for a second Pfizer vaccine dose. The Premier said Monday was one of the largest days ever in the state for vaccine bookings.

More than 27,000 bookings for first doses of Moderna vaccines are currently available in state-run clinics.

More than 96,000 people rolled up their sleeves to get a COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, including 35,253 at state-run clinics, and more than 62,189 test results were processed.

Victorian health authorities have started providing postcode-based COVID-19 vaccination data. Mr Andrews said that authorities would initially be targeting 27 priority suburbs for the data “where vaccination rates are not as high as we would like”.

“We do need to go even a step further, and not just target a local government area but target individual postcodes – those 27 postcodes where the current first dose coverage rates are under 75 per cent,” Mr Andrews said.

“We’re going to work to try and get those up as high as we possibly can.” Among the suburbs with the lowest rates are Campbellfield, St Kilda, Kensington and Frankston North.

At the other end of the spectrum, the first-dose vaccination rate has tipped over 90 per cent in 22 local government areas.

Deputy secretary of Victoria’s COVID-19 response, Naomi Bromley, said 54 of the state’s 79 local government areas are now above the 80 per cent first-dose vaccination mark, and statewide 83 per cent of people over 16 had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

As of Monday, Wyndham had 89 per cent of its eligible residents vaccinated with a first dose, Casey and Cardinia have 83 per cent and Hume 80 per cent.

Mr Andrews said authorities are committed to sticking to timelines for the state to open up and that Victoria was still on track, if not ahead of schedule, to meet its October and November vaccination targets.

Loading

“At this stage, I’ve got no advice that we’d have to alter anything on the road map; I want to try and give people as much freedom as fast as I can, as [safely] as possible,” Mr Andrews said. “But I don’t have any advice that sees us having to alter that now.”

Construction workers back at sites

Much of Victoria’s construction sector emerged from an industry shut down on Tuesday morning, with locked-down workers in Melbourne and the state’s regions returning to building sites after two weeks off the job.

The shutdown was a period of unrest for some workers, who last month clashed with CFMEU officials at the union’s Elizabeth Street office in the CBD following news of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all those in the industry.

The following day, after the shutdown was announced, they were among protesters who brought traffic to a standstill on the busy West Gate Freeway as they marched to the centre of the West Gate Bridge.

The number of construction workers among protesters appeared to have diminished by the time demonstrators gathered at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance, primarily to rally against vaccinations and coronavirus lockdowns.

Victorian health authorities said over the weekend that five cases of COVID-19 were linked to recent gatherings at the CFMEU and of the cases, four were staff.

Paramedics test positive

Loading

Ambulance Victoria confirmed on Tuesday morning that three of its paramedics tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend.

Two were not working while infectious. The third was asymptomatic and did work while infectious, but was wearing full protective gear and followed COVID-safe protocols.

Close contacts of the paramedic have been asked to get tested for COVID-19 and isolate.

An Ambulance Victoria spokesperson said it was the “first time in 2021 that a paramedic has returned a positive test, which shows how our policies and procedures to protect paramedics and patients are working”.

“The paramedics are doing well and we are supporting them to isolate and recover safely,” the spokesperson said.

“Contact tracing has been completed and the paramedics and their close contacts are isolating as required.”

An early learning centre was added as a tier-1 exposure site on Tuesday afternoon. The Emerald Learning Centre, south-east of Melbourne, became an exposure site after a case attended the venue on Monday and Tuesday last week.

The state’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton announced on Monday that the government would scrap publishing lower-risk COVID-19 exposure sites on its website, saying: “We have to focus our efforts on where we’ll get the most bang for buck, the greatest efficiency and effectiveness of contact tracing.”

Authorities also said more targeted, risk-based isolation protocols - currently being trialled in supermarkets - would be rolled out in other “critical industries”, yet to be determined.

Stay across the most crucial developments related to the pandemic with the Coronavirus Update. Sign up to receive the weekly newsletter.