An increasing number of government members are calling on Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to scrap COVID-19 restrictions today. Mr Andrews sparked outrage after he delayed lifting lockdown restrictions as a result of a new cluster, saying there would be a “p…

An increasing number of government members are calling on Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to scrap COVID-19 restrictions today.
The state recorded zero new infections on Monday for the first time since June 9.
This means Melbourne’s 14 day rolling average has dropped even further below the threshold to ease more restrictions, falling from 4.6 cases to 3.6 cases overnight.
This brings the total rolling average for the state to just 3.8 cases.
Victoria’s roadmap out of lockdown set a 14 day rolling average of five cases or less for Melbourne to move to the third step out of lockdown.
Despite this, Mr Andrews announced on Sunday that easing of restrictions would be delayed while the results from a testing blitz relating to a new cluster are received.
Picture: David Geraghty/NCA NewsWire
Multiple government officials, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, have lashed out at the Victorian premier for the decision.
Victorian crossbencher MP Fiona Pattern added her voice to the growing number of people calling for restrictions to ease today.
She called on Mr Andrews to remove the “bulk” of Victoria’s restrictions.
With a 14-day rolling average of now just 3.8, well below what we were told was needed to open our city back up, its now time that Victoria emerges from the darkness we have all endured and start our new state of covid normal, Ms Patten said in a statement.
People are ready, business is ready Melbourne is ready.
We know we need to open our economy back up safely, there is no doubt about that, but having come all this way, Victorians now rightly deserve to have their freedoms restored.
The Premier must now take a huge step forward and remove the bulk of restrictions across Melbourne.
The time has come Premier. Lets go!”
This is now about mutual trust. Community must trust the gov on their processes and gov must trust the community and businesses to act safely. 0 cases and 0 deaths today for the first time since Jan. Let’s go! #springsthttps://t.co/M7KswDk2LT
— Fiona Patten MP (@FionaPattenMLC) October 25, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFederal Health Minister Greg Hunt also noted that Victoria was “safe to reopen”, claiming there is only one explanation if Mr Andrews doesn’t ease restrictions today.
The only reason that the Premier would not allow Victoria to open today is if he didnt have confidence in his contact tracing, Mr Hunt told 3AW.
If they do believe in their contact tracing system there is no reason not to move to the next stage and to do so today.
This is the moment. Todays the day where Victoria should respectfully open up in a COVID-safe way.