As per the latest reports, the government of Australia’s Victoria state has announced on Tuesday a set of new public health laws to replace the emergency powers that were put during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Chief Health Officer To Not Longer Have The Final Say
Under the new laws, the state’s Chief Health the officer would no longer have the final say regarding Victoria’s public orders. Furthermore, the laws would bring about a tiered system to fine those who breach the public health orders to reduce the burden on the disadvantaged citizens.
The state’s Health Minister Martin Foley said that they have learned over the course of the past 21 months that these powers may impact all the aspects of the community. Along with the well-being, economy and the mental health and the business and community.
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Meanwhile, under the new laws, the Minister for Health and the CHO have decided that with the current circumstances, the Premier will be allowed to declare a pandemic. Following this, a report setting out the reasons to declare the pandemic and advise of the Minister and CHO will be tabled in both the Houses of Parliament.
Victoria Comes Out Of Sixth Lockdown
This comes after Victoria recently came out of it’s sixth lockdown on October 22 as it had reached the rate of 70 percent of the full vaccination. In the past 24 hours, Victoria recorded 1510 new locally acquired cases.
However, the number of active cases have dropped to 24,715 on Tuesday from 24,831 reported on Monday. The state also recorded four additional Covid 19 related deaths in the same period. This has further brought the death toll to 234.
Currently, 75 percent of the state’s adult population has been fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, the authorities also called for the citizens to come forward for their second dose of vaccination. He noted that around 87 percent of the people in hospital and 96 percent of the people in the ICU across state have not been fully vaccinated.