Lockdown hopefully leads to "quick decline" of Melbourne COVID-19 cases: Aussie medical official

Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Michael Kidd said on Monday that he was hopeful of a quick decline in COVID-19 numbers in the state of Victoria.

   Kidd said he was optimistic that stage four lockdown restrictions instituted across the metropolitan Melbourne region for six weeks from Sunday night would lead to a "quick decline" in community transmission of COVID-19.

   "Hopefully we'll see a very quick decline in the number of daily infections. We expect that to start occurring within the next two weeks or so," he told Nine Network television.

   "You've got to remember that the infections that we're seeing today are the people who've been infected in the last week or so."

   "So it does take a week or two before we will start to see a decline in infections."

   As of Monday afternoon, there had been 18,318 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the number of new cases in the last 24 hours is 444, according to the latest figures from Department of Health.

   The national death toll has increased from 208 to 221, with all 13 new deaths being in Victoria.

   "Eight of the 13 new deaths are linked to known outbreaks in aged care facilities. To date, 136 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria," said a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria on Monday.

   Of the new cases, 429 were in Victoria, with the total number of cases in the state now at 11,937.

   The state has confirmed an average of about 504 new cases per day in the seven days since July 27.

   In response to the outbreaks, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday announced restrictions for business, one of which is that industries with onsite operations will have to cease for the next six weeks including retail, some manufacturing and administration.

   These businesses will all need to close by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5, unless they have specific circumstances that mean they need longer to shutdown safely.

   "As Premier, I've spent every day fighting for workers and fighting for jobs," Andrews said in the statement on Monday.

   "Truthfully, I never thought I'd find myself in a position where I'd have to ask people not to go to work."

   "These changes, in addition to the previous restrictions including working from home requirements, will mean around 1 million Victorians are no longer moving around the state for work."