Cr Georgina Papafotiou, Brimbank Mayor

Brimbank Council says that it acknowledges the announcement and advice of State Government and the Chief Health Officer to impose further restrictions in and around some Brimbank suburbs to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Brimbank Mayor Cr Georgina Papafotiou issued a statement: “We are asking our community to follow the advice of the health authorities which means for those in postcodes 3038, 3012, 3042 3021, taking in the suburbs of Albanvale, Brooklyn, Kealba, Kings Park, St Albans, Keilor Downs, Keilor Lodge, Keilor Park, Taylors Lake, and Watergardens, to follow the directions of the Chief Health Officer in not leaving their homes except for food and supplies, medical and caregiving, exercise and work or education if this cannot be done at home.

“The sooner we follow the advice the sooner we can have these new restrictions lifted. It is vital that we do what we can and share the responsibility for taking control of the virus and work with the authorities to help ourselves.

“Council is working through what the impact of the restrictions means to our community, as well as our staff in the identified suburbs.

“We are a proud, hardworking and resilient community but there is no doubt that these new measures will compound the socio-economic issues our community is already experiencing.

“We know that some of our community members will struggle, and some of our businesses will suffer hardship during this next four weeks of increased restrictions, not just in the identified suburbs but across the whole municipality.

“Our community, and our Council will need assistance to help us to get through this period, and to begin to recover from this pandemic.

“We will continue to talk to the Department of Health and Human Services and the State Government to understand how we support them and how we support our communities.

“Now is the time for more support, resources and investment into Brimbank to support our community to fight and recover from this.

“These further restrictions need to be complemented with a dedicated COVID-19 Health, Wellbeing and Economic Package for Brimbank, that will support impacted residents and businesses now, and as we work to recover,” Cr Papafotiou said.