The two key questions Neil Mitchell has for Daniel Andrews today

Neil Mitchell says there’s still a “COVID cone of silence” within the state government, and Victorians deserve answers.

The 3AW Mornings host has two key questions for the Premier today: “Why is Victoria’s COVID record at the moment so much worse than NSW?” and “Does Victoria have on the table the proposition that people with COVID no longer need to isolate?”

In the past two weeks, Victoria has had about 17 per cent more COVID-19 cases than NSW, despite having a significantly smaller population.

“NSW is a bigger state — 8.1 million people — we’ve got about 6.6 million people. That means they’ve got about 22 per cent more people than we have,” Neil Mitchell said.

“We have had far more deaths. NSW has had 175 deaths, we’ve had 215 — we’ve had 22 per cent more deaths.”

3AW Breakfast co-host Ross Stevenson has heard a rumour the state government is considering removing the isolation rules for people with COVID-19 in November.

This hasn’t been confirmed, but Neil Mitchell says Victorians deserve to know where things are headed.

“This may be hypothetical, but is it on the table? I think it has to be — it happened in the United Kingdom,” he said.

“I’d be very surprised if the health advice is to that effect, but political analysis could be underway. If that happens, it amounts to a declaration that the pandemic is over.

“At least tell us if it’s on the table: is it possible, perhaps by November, the time of the state election, Victoria will lift the requirement for COVID positive people to go into isolation?”

Press PLAY below to hear the two questions Neil Mitchell says the Premier must answer urgently

Epidemiologist and head of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at Melbourne University, Professor Nancy Baxter, says removing isolation rules makes sense if the health approach is to no longer focus on virus transmission.

“That’s what they’ve done in places like the UK. They’re not as concerned, they’re not doing as much testing so we really don’t have a good handle on how many cases are in the UK anymore,” she told Neil Mitchell.

“I think you kind of need to understand where we’re at with the outbreak to determine whether you can relax things like isolation. I think right now we’re assuming that COVID is going to burn itself out.”

Professor Baxter suggested more mask-wearing would help ease the incredible strain on Victoria’s health system.

“I think we would be safer if we were all wearing masks, and certainly right now in the winter, with us being indoors more and with the hospitals being in a real state of crisis with two respiratory disease outbreaks,” she said.

Press PLAY below to hear Professor Baxter’s view

Image (Andrews): Darrian Traynor/Getty Images