By Brendan Rees
The number of Covid-19 cases reported in Casey City has remained at 53 – an increase of one since Friday 17 April.
There were no new deaths reported in the past 24 hours. To date, 15 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.
The Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services figures showed the total number of coronavirus cases in Victoria was 1329 – an increase of one since Sunday 19 April.
The total number of cases is made up of 690 men and 639 women, with people aged from babies to their early nineties.
In other neighbouring local government areas, the number of cases in Greater Dandenong also remained steady with 14 cases while Cardinia had 13. The data, however, does not provide a suburb-by-suburb break-down of Covid-19 cases.
There are 136 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Victoria that may have been acquired through community transmission. Currently 28 people are in hospital, including 11 patients in intensive care. 1196 people have recovered. More than 86,000 tests have been completed.
Of the total 1329 cases, there have been 1053 in metropolitan Melbourne and 240 in regional Victoria. Several cases remain under investigation.
New state-based modelling shows had staying at home and other physical distancing requirements not been enforced to slow the spread of coronavirus, Victoria would have seen up to 58,000 new coronavirus cases every day at the peak of the pandemic.
The modelling, undertaken by Monash University and the Doherty Institute, in collaboration with epidemiology experts in the Department of Health and Human Services also revealed that if a business-as-usual approach had been adopted, as many as 9,200 Victorians would have been presenting to hospital every single day.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said the recent daily fluctuations in the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Victoria was due to an increase in the number of tests being completed and an increase in the number of travellers returning from overseas on repatriation flights.
“This is not a time to relax our strong approach as this disease can get away from you very quickly as we have seen in cities overseas,” Professor Sutton said.
Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours Victoria Police officers issued 91 fines to those breaching the directions in relation to staying at home, restricted activity and isolation directions after conducting 819 spot checks across the state as part of Operation Sentinel.
Examples of breaches that resulted in fines over included five people sitting in a vehicle drinking, 16 people gathered at a private residence for a party, and a 20-year-old male from Mildura who was spoken to by police five times in five hours for breaches of the Chief Health Officer’s directions.
He was charged in relation to these breaches and bailed to appear at Mildura Magistrates Court on 15 July.
