‘Need to dab the brakes’: Epidemiologist says it’s time to reintroduce COVID-19 restrictions

An epidemiologist says it’s time for Victoria to reintroduce some COVID-19 restrictions to ease the strain on the hospital system.

Victoria recorded a new daily record of 17,636 new COVID-19 cases from 59,682 tests yesterday.

Epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne, Professor Tony Blakely, says current case numbers are where he expected them to be, and he’s “not panicking”, but hospitals are at risk of becoming overwhelmed.

“Here’s the good news — This thing is going to wash through in a matter of two to three weeks and then it’ll be over, and when it’s over we’ll end up with a lot of our population having been infected,” he told Tony Jones, filling in for Neil Mitchell.

“Some morbidity, mortality, not too bad but we’ll boost our resilience and our immunity.

“The downside about this is we’re going to really stretch our health services in the next month, and I really feel for them.

“It’s also going to be very disruptive to society.”

Professor Blakely is calling for restrictions such as density limits and outdoor dining to be reintroduced in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19 and ease the pressure on hospitals.

“We need to dab the brakes, just for a week or two, just to slow things down,” he said.

“What that will do is it will just push the epidemic out for another week or two, so two or three weeks of washing through might be four or five weeks, but it’ll just take the spike off it and make it a little bit easier for society and health services.”

Press PLAY below to hear what Professor Blakely