The media pack will have a field day with Andrews today.
I watched the first 40 minutes of yesterday's press conference.
The one strange thing yesterday was Andrews glossing over the numbers and alluding to the big increase due to the unfolding tragedies in about 90 nursing homes (mostly in Melbourne). It was unusal as Andrews on every other day has been quite precise and expansive on going through the numbers.
I thought at the time it was strange.
Lo and behold I read a commentary in The Australian published later in the afternoon. Wow the increase in cases of 723 was not mainly in the aged care homes, that was only 73 cases. That means there were 650 cases out side that setting including 47 healthcare workers.
That means there were 603 community transmission cases. That is a record number by some way.
So the question is did Andrews know this 603 number before the press conference? If he did why was he being cagey? If he didn't why did he allude that the big rise in numbers was attributable to aged care homes.
What was Andrews trying to achieve yesterday? Will the media pack buy it?
See article below from Rachael Baxendale.
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Coronavirus Australia live news: Andrews’ aged-care claims don’t stack up; Outbreak spreads across Melbourne, regionsRachel BaxendaleVictorian Political Reporter@rachelbaxendalePremier Daniel Andrews’ suggestion that a large proportion of Thursday’s 723 new coronavirus cases in Victoria are linked to aged-care facilities has not been borne out by the figures.
Only 10 per cent of Thursday’s new cases have been linked to aged-care residents and staff.
Thursday’s COVID-19 press release from the Department of Health and Human Services shows 73 of the new cases have been linked to aged care facilities, and 47 have been linked to healthcare workers.
That means there are 603 new cases on Thursday not associated with either of those settings.
Mr Andrews on Thursday said there had been 913 active cases linked to aged care facilities, but DHHS has updated this figure to 877.
On Wednesday, the figure was 804, hence the increase on Thursday of 73.
Asked to account for the jump in new cases on Thusday, Mr Andrews said pointed to aged care, saying: “I’m loathe to go into too much detail, because I frankly don’t want it to be read as a criticism of any one sector,” he said.
“The point that I make is that there are a number of positive cases in aged care, and therefore they are being reflected in these numbers.
“That’s one point. The other issue around targeted testing, where there’s been significant outbreaks, the more outbreaks you have, the more testing you do, and you will find cases. “That number is not - there’s not 700-plus community transmission cases. The community transmission number will be but a fraction of that.”
In fact the number of cases for which DHHS contact tracers have been unable to identify a source rose by 280 on Thursday, to a total of 1698 - an increase of 1397 since July 1.
This does not include a whopping 3529 cases which remain under investigation.
There are currently 5385 active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria, with a total of 9998 cases since the pandemic began.
