Having a big piss-up at your place now the bars are closed is a extremely not on, says Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who this morning spoke on the drastic measures the state is taking to slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) through the community.
Speaking in Melbourne, Andrews reiterated yesterday’s news that as of midday today, a huge slab of non-essential businesses will be closed. Pubs, clubs, cinemas, hotel bars, gyms, casinos, and more will lock their doors while we see this thing through.
But that’s not an excuse to transfer the party to your place.
“By way of example, you won’t be able to go to the pub because the pub is shut,” Andrews said.
“That doesn’t mean you can have all your mates round to your home and get on the beers, that’s not appropriate. It’s not essential. It’s not needed. All it will do is spread the virus.”
To depict the intensity of COVID-19’s infection rate, Andrews rolled out an example of how one Victorian dinner party last week resulted in a batch of new infections.
“If you want another example we had a case last week where a group of people, a dozen or so, went to a dinner party,” he said.
“As best we can tell the dinner party started with one person who had the coronavirus. By the end of the dinner party almost everybody at the dinner party had the coronavirus.
“This spreads rapidly. If people simply behave as normal, if they don’t take this seriously, if they act selfishly, then people will die. I can’t be any clearer than that.”
#BREAKING: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced new details of the state-wide shutdown. @ChristineAhern #9News pic.twitter.com/IJCVm7c5bp
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) March 22, 2020
Andrews added that 500 Victorian Police members will be assigned to ensure businesses follow the shutdown directives. In a separate statement, he said those officers will “take action against anyone caught doing the wrong thing.”
While cops are not yet roaming the street to barge in on any house party holding too many people at once, it’s pretty clear you should enforce good social distancing measures to keep this whole situation from getting worse.
Victoria clocked 59 new confirmed cases yesterday, notching the state’s total up to 355. Over 1,000 cases have been confirmed nationwide, and seven people have died.
“There are many Victorians who are acting selfishly,” Andrews said.
“They are not taking this seriously. They are doing the wrong thing and, if that continues, then people will die.”
