By Mathew Dunckley
You might remember at yesterday’s press conference Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government would establish a digital link to Medicare accounts when people had been vaccinated, partly to allow free travel between states.
Asked about this, Health Minister Martin Foley gave a cool response saying any change to rules around borders would be based on health advice and that current vaccination levels were “nowhere near” the numbers required to allow that.
12.19pm
By Mathew Dunckley
We are hopping around a little bit at the podium. Professor Lewin has come back to answer two important questions about the Delta variant flare-up.
Health Minister Martin Foley says current lockdowns will not continue “for a moment longer” than necessary to ensure the health and safety of Victorians.
Asked as to when an announcement would be made on the current health provisions, Mr Foley says there is no simple answer, reiterating that the Victorian Government will take into account medical advice before making any major decisions.
"Rest assured, the people of Victoria, we don't want to keep the system in place for a moment longer than the public health advice says we need it in place,” he said.
"Clearly, as we approach next Thursday, the kind of facts we have been going through here, the evidence, what cases are around, either linked or unlinked, have we got the support around them, how we got the evidence as to knowing where they've come from, have we seen any upstream outbreaks … these all go into the mix.”