Victoria’s coronavirus outbreak has been officially declared a “pandemic” under new legislation that could be used to impose fresh public health orders if case numbers continue to spiral out of control.
The declaration to Parliament by Premier Daniel Andrews replaces the now-expired state of emergency provisions previously used to make public health orders such as mask mandates,travel limits,curfews and stay at home rules.
While it is already clear that there is a global pandemic under way,the pandemic declaration was required under the laws to allow the Andrews government to exercise its new powers.
As required by law,the declaration was accompanied by a report outlining the government’s reasoning for the pandemic declaration,paving the way for further public health orders if they are needed and the continuation of existing orders.
It makes clear there is still a “serious risk to public health arising from COVID-19”.
It also suggests vaccines alone will not be sufficient to manage the outbreak,echoing the comments of World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier this week.
“I need to be very clear:vaccines alone will not get any country out of this crisis. It’s not vaccines instead of masks. It’s not vaccines instead of distancing. It’s not vaccines instead of ventilation or hand hygiene. Do it all. Do it consistently. Do it well,” the WHO Director-General said on December 14.
The Victorian government’s report says that “while the considerable protection offered by high vaccination rates amounts to a significant change in the risk profile,the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to leave a significant number of people exposed to risk”.
“The Premier was satisfied that current vaccination rates alone will not suffice to contain transmission within health system capacity,and available treatments are only partially effective in mitigating serious illness or death.”
The pandemic declaration follows a promise by Mr Andrews that there will be “no more lockdowns” after the state reached its vaccination targets.
However,since then,the highly infectious Omicron strain has triggered to fresh doubts about the ability of the health system to cope,particularly if case numbers continue rise.
“There are limited preventative and therapeutic interventions to manage COVID-19 and – other than vaccines – many interventions remain supportive (oxygen,ventilation etc.) rather than curative or preventive,” the report said.
“The available therapeutic interventions of antivirals,steroids and supportive care,have been shown to be only partially effective in reducing mortality and decreasing hospital stays.”