PRIME Minister Scott Morrison has been in talks with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews seeking a solution to the Victoria-New South Wales border situation.
Thousands of Victorians remain stranded in New South Wales after Victoria slammed the border shut on Friday night, with more than 2300 applications for exemptions made and only 175 processed on Sunday.
The Prime Minister said the federal government was willing to provide support “to get a better pathway home for Victorians as soon as possible”, noting wastewater testing had shown no trace of coronavirus outside of metropolitan Sydney and other known hotspot areas.
“So all of regional, rural NSW remains as rural and regional Victoria does and indeed metropolitan Melbourne substantively,” Mr Morrison told 3AW on Tuesday.
“That’s an opportunity, I think, for Victoria’s government to continue to work through those issues.”
Mr Morrison said it was the right of state governments to dictate public health and border rules.
“It would be great to see these things move in the other direction soon, particularly given the success that’s been had in both in NSW and Victoria,” the prime minister said.
“What we’re seeing in relation to both these outbreaks, when you compare it to what happened earlier in the year, they’re getting on top of this.
“The systems are working.”
Victoria recorded three new locally acquired coronavirus cases on Tuesday for a third straight day, along with another case in hotel quarantine, while NSW recorded four new cases.
Victoria’s testing commander Jeroen Weimar was confident the Black Rock coronavirus cluster in Melbourne is on a “very positive trajectory”.
As of Monday, 24 cases were directly linked to the outbreak – all connected to the Buffalo Smile Thai restaurant in bayside Melbourne and linked back to a cluster in NSW.
More than 1000 primary and secondary contacts are isolating and a growing number of exposure sites have been identified.
New locations were added on Monday in Albert Park, Bentleigh, Brighton, Emerald, Frankston, Keysborough, Melbourne, Nunawading and Springvale.
The state’s number of active cases stands at 38.
— AAP
