Victoria has recorded three new cases of COVID-19 overnight as question marks loom over whether the state will exit lockdown on Friday.
The new cases include two primary close contacts who were already in quarantine during their infectious period. One case is still under investigation.
Health Minister Martin Foley said the third case was not a known contact of an infected person and was not directly linked to an exposure site.
“But there is very close proximity to that exposure site and we are confident the investigation ongoing will uncover further crossover,” he said.
More than 42,000 test results were conducted in the past 24 hours.
The new cases bring the cluster total to 54.
Mr Foley said genomic sequencing confirmed that the infection in the Arcare aged care worker was directly linked to the South Australia hotel outbreak.
“That is at least confirming in our mind that this is all the one related cluster from the South Australian hotel breach,” he said.
All residents and staff at the BlueCross Sunshine Aged Care facility have tested negative to coronavirus, aside from the case in the worker reported yesterday.
There were also no further positive cases detected at the Arcare Maidstone facility.
“These sites remain under strict infection and prevention control measures,” Mr Foley said.
Victorians are holding onto hopes that lockdown may end on Friday, despite Acting Premier James Merlino warning the outbreak “may well get worse before it gets better”.
Mr Foley today said health authorities were still considering whether the state could exit lockdown on Friday, examining whether the virus was still circulating undetected in the community.
“Our public health team are currently weighing whether there is still coronavirus circulating in these communities and we still consider our response to the current outbreak on a day-by-day basis,” he said.
“We do not know there’s going to be an extension or not – as the acting premier pointed out yesterday, there is every prospect that things might get worse before they get better … and the aged care settings are quite troubling.”
Epidemiologist Dr Tony Blakely told Today this morning Victoria could leave lockdown if case numbers remained low and no more mystery cases emerged.
However, if Melbourne continued to see a substantial rise in cases, including mystery infections, the ‘ring of steel’ could return allowing just regional Victoria to exit lockdown.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen on Friday but if I was to be forced to take a bet, I think what we will see – Melbourne staying in some form of lockdown, ring of steel in place and regional Victoria being allowed to not go back to normal – but something a bit more normal,” he said.
“That will happen if we see one or two mystery cases in the next couple of days. If we see no mystery cases, we may be able to release the lockdown because the contact tracing has done well at finding all the sites.”
Mr Foley would not confirm if a ‘ring of steel’ would be established between Melbourne and regional Victoria, but did not rule out the possibility.
Missing link ‘absolutely clear’
Victoria’s testing commander Jeroen Weimar said it was “absolutely clear” there remains a missing link between the man who left South Australia hotel quarantine and the infections linked to Melbourne’s outbreak.
“He returned no positive primary close contacts throughout his exposure period, but all of those individuals completed their 14-day period as appropriate,” he said.
“We are absolutely clear that there is a missing link between this individual and the subsequent outbreak that we have seen.”
More than 5000 primary close contacts are now linked to the outbreak, with 75 per cent of about 4800 returning a negative test, an “encouraging figure”.
There were more than 700 home visits conducted yesterday, to people who were either positive cases or isolating. Eight people were found “not where they should have been” and are being followed up with the state’s enforcement division.
The City of Whittlesea now has a total of 28 positive cases.
“This is still an active and dynamic situation,” Mr Weimar said.
“We’ve seen this morph three or four times in the last eight days. Teams are working exceptionally hard, managing just over 5000 primary contacts, over 300 exposure sites.”
Shopping centres among venues of concern
Mr Weimar said some Melbourne shopping centres were venues of most concern and transmission may have occurred through “very fleeting contact”.
Craigieburn Central, Bay St Port Melbourne, Clarendon Street in South Melbourne, Epping Plaza, Epping North Shops and Broadway Reservoir were cited as concerning areas.
“If you are a user of the shopping centres, if you have been around the shopping centres in the last two weeks, I would really encourage you to come forward and get tested,” Mr Weimar said.
“We are concerned about evidence of about four or five instances we’ve now seen where we have seen transmission between people with very fleeting contact.”
Mr Weimar said the cluster has been fuelled by “stranger-to-stranger transmission”.
“They don’t know each other’s names. That’s very different to where we have been before,” he said.
The testing chief said there were two cases where the origin had not been precisely established.
“There is a connection between our Victorian from Wollert, who arrived back in the state on May 4 – the connection between him and case five has not been precisely established,” he said.
Aged care and disability vaccine blitz underway
A five-day vaccination blitz will be undertaken in Victoria, with aged care and disability workers to be given priority access at walk-in vaccination hubs.
From tomorrow until Sunday, Commonwealth-managed private aged care homes and the residential disability sector will be prioritised at walk-in vaccination hubs around Victoria when they present evidence of their employment.
The Royal Exhibition Building, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Sandown Racecourse, the Melbourne Showgrounds, and the former Ford factory in Geelong are among the sites where workers can get a walk-in vaccination.
In regional Victoria, the Bendigo community clinic, Ballarat Mercure Hotel and Convention Centre and the Shepparton Showgrounds will be open to walk-ins for eligible employees.
