Funeral numbers probed
POLICE LOOKING INTO POTENTIAL BREACH, BUT PREMIER URGES PEOPLE NOT TO ‘JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS’
Police have confirmed they are looking into a potential breach of the Victorian chief health officer’s orders at a funeral in Shepparton on August 11.
Police received a report about the breach on August 11.
Victoria Police chief commissioner Shane Patton told 3AW police and the health department were investigating “a large funeral” in Shepparton and that they were looking at numbers to see if more than the 50 people allowed attended.
When asked about allegations that a large funeral in Shepparton seeded the current outbreak, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews urged people not to ‘‘jump to conclusions’’ about the situation.
“I don’t know that any such events occurred, I don’t know what the circumstances of it were if it did,” he said.
“But we can all be confident that the (Victoria Police) Chief Commissioner and his officers will look at the matter and any other matters that they think are appropriate.
“I ask people not to jump to conclusions about what has happened in Shepparton.
“The people in Shepparton are doing it tough at the moment, but they are doing a great and amazing job and for that we are grateful to them.
“They are working hard not just to protect their community, but to protect all of us — coming out and standing in queues for long, long periods of time to get tested and getting vaccinated in strong numbers and staying at home away from everybody else in hard iso is really difficult, but critically important work and we thank them for it.”