By Brendan Rees
Casey’s active Covid-19 tally has continued to fall, with data showing a drop of nearly 200 cases in the seven days to Wednesday 26 August.
Despite Casey recording three new cases in the 24 hours to Wednesday 26 August, the local government area active case tally dropped by eight to 151, according to the latest health data.
Victoria recorded 149 new cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 26 August, with the total number of cases now at 18,608.
The state’s total has 3488 active cases, including 434 active cases of infected health care workers.
There have been 24 new deaths from Covid-19 reported in the 24 hours to Wednesday 26 August. They include one woman in her 60s, three men in their 70s, three women in their 80s, seven men in their 80s, six women in their 90s and four men in their 90s.
In Neighbouring local government areas Greater Dandenong has 117 active cases and Cardinia 34.
On Wednesday 19 August, 349 cases had been listed as currently active within Casey, but that number has dropped by 198 in the past week.
Meanwhile, Victoria Police issued 156 fines to individuals for breaching the Chief Health Officer directions in the 24 hours to Wednesday 26 August including 22 for failing to wear a face covering, 16 at vehicle checkpoints, and 46 for curfew breaches.
Examples of people breaching the rules include:
• A woman who was intercepted in Carlton at 12.45am after police observed her driving without her headlights on. When asked for her reason for travel, she told police she was going to a convenience store to buy some donuts.
• A man who was found drunk in the passenger seat of a vehicle at 4am. He told police he had just come from a party at his friend’s house.
• Multiple people across Melbourne leaving their homes during curfew hours to buy fast food.
In other developments, Premier Daniel Andrews has made a contentious bid extend Victoria’s state-of-emergency powers by a year – a move Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said the state coalition would vehemently oppose, describing it as a “power grab” by the Premier.
“Daniel Andrews caused this second wave by his government’s incompetence managing hotel quarantine and now he wants to extend his power without being accountable for it,” Mr O’Brien said.
The extended powers, which the Premier plans to introduce on 1 September, would mean mandatory face coverings and requiring workplaces to have a Covid Safe Plan.
“Without a vaccine, this pandemic is far from over,” Mr Andrews said. “These legislative changes will mean we continue to have the right protections in place until it is.”
