6.00pm – Wednesday, 9 June 2021.

To: CCF Victoria staff, members and industry stakeholders.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update – From the CEO desk.

Good evening.

It would appear that the extra week of circuit breaker lock-down restrictions has provided critical additional information about how the COVID-19 virus has moved around the community and provided Government the confidence, that we are now seeing an easing of restrictions.

On the advice of the Chief Health Officer, the Acting Premier announced today that the “Stay at Home” limits will be removed in metropolitan Melbourne and there will be some further easing of restrictions for regional Victorian communities.

You can see the Acting Premier’s statement attached, which also includes an updated summary table of restrictions:  

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/statement-acting-premier-3

The major easing of restrictions in Metropolitan Melbourne are:

  • 5 reasons to leave home no longer apply;
  • No visitors to homes but 10 can gather outdoors;
  • extension of travel limit from 10 kms to 25 kms (but not to Regional Victoria);
  • Face masks must continue to be worn outdoors and indoors especially in shopping centres and public transport;
  • Restaurants and cafes to re-open with a limit of 100 patrons (50 seated indoors)

The Acting Premier has also announced additional support for businesses. For further details please go to: 

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/extra-cash-support-melbourne-businesses

Positive Case on a Construction Project – UPDATE

Many of you will have seen reported on Friday and over the weekend, the outbreak at the Probuild project located at 100 Queen Street in the CBD.  This will remain a Tier 1 public exposure site for a total of just under 500 contacts, that had been at that site last week for a cumulative 15 minutes or more. There are 2 positive cases engaged by a cleaning subcontractor.

It is important to note that the criteria now for re-opening the site – or any site in this situation – is that 95 percent of test results need to be in and the DoH outbreak team has visited the site again, as the relevant authority, to confirm re-opening.

Service Victoria – QR Codes

In a major announcement today, the Victorian Government has foreshowed that the use of the QR Code Service will now be mandatory for all businesses.

There will be a period of consultation from Business Victoria about how this can be achieved in various sectors of the industry, particularly for large volume and other builders in the residential sector.  The following information has been provided to us from Department of Premier and Cabinet:

“In addition, we intend to move to compulsory QR check-ins for all workplaces, with some limited exceptions. This outbreak saw a large number of cases in office settings, and to further improve our capacity to respond we’ll go an extra step and seek to move all to the Service Vic app. Though our contact tracing team successfully chased down cases linked to workplaces – and companies have done a terrific job of record keeping within the rules – this would have been even quicker with QR codes. We note that most other states don’t mandate QR code use in non-customer facing workplaces, but the public health advice is that this will help us get in front of any possible outbreaks in future. We’ll be looking to consult with industry and finalise details in the coming days”.

DJPR will be consulting with industry on these plans over the coming days and further details will be announced soon. 

Under the current restrictions, every customer-facing business must use the free Victorian Government QR Code Service to check in customers, workers and all other visitors. A complete list of sectors where this is mandatory is available here.

Venues can now check in guests who don’t have a smartphone via the Kiosk check-in function. This lets staff enter a customer’s name and contact phone number electronically making it easier for contact tracers to contact people quickly if an outbreak occurs.

Every customer and visitor must check in, no matter how long they are at the premises. Businesses must also ensure that all visitors have checked in.  I cannot stress the importance of everyone – visitors and workers, scanning into all offices and sites in support of contract tracing efforts. We cannot afford to be complacent and place at risk the tremendous work that has been done by all of you in the Building & Construction industry … in keeping constructions sites – “open and safe”.

Support for businesses

The Victorian Government has announced it will provide additional support for businesses in greater Melbourne who continue to be affected by necessary health restrictions.  Those businesses that will still be affected by restrictions will share a new injection of $8.4 million.

A further $2,000 top-up payment will be available to businesses in metropolitan Melbourne that are closed due to extended restrictions, including gyms, dance schools and yoga studios, taking the total amount available to businesses in eligible sectors up to $7,000.

The Victorian Government has previously announced $492.2 million of support for small and medium-sized businesses and sole traders, including the Business Costs Assistance Program, Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund and Regional Tourism Support Package.

Other important information for businesses

An update of the Building & Construction Industry Guidelines version.13 is currently being undertaken in accordance with these new regulations.  This will be released, circulated to CCF members and placed on the CCF website in the next 24-48 hours. 

All Victorians over the age of 40 are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. For more information on how to book your vaccine appointment, visit the Coronavirus website

Anyone with symptoms should get tested immediately. The list of testing sites includes wait times.

For more information, visit coronavirus.vic.gov.au or call the Business Victoria hotline on 13 22 15.

Until my next update …. keep well – keep safe.

Kind regards