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Three local cases in Vic, with second apartment block locked down

Part of this apartment block in Melbourne's inner-east is in lockdown over fears of COVID spread.

Part of this apartment block in Melbourne's inner-east is in lockdown over fears of COVID spread. Photo: Google Maps

Victoria has three new local COVID cases, all linked to outbreaks and in quarantine while infectious.

Friday’s update bring the state to 200 active coronavirus infections, after its fifth lockdown ended earlier in the week.

It came as part of another Melbourne apartment block was sent into lockdown amid fears of exposure to an infected person.

Residents in one section of the Balmoral Apartments at 190 Riversdale Road, Hawthorn, in Melbourne’s inner-east, have been ordered to stay home for a fortnight.

Nobody at the complex has tested positive, but it is thought a recent visitor might have been been infectious.

Victorian health authorities have designated the rest of the complex a tier two site.

On Thursday, residents of another apartment block at Newport, in the city’s west, were being tested after a man with the virus visited the block earlier in the week. That apartment block is not listed as an exposure site – but the nearby post office is.

  • See all of Victoria’s updated exposure sites here

Authorities have also managed to link that man’s infection back to the state’s current outbreaks. But they are still trying to work out how the man, who was working as a traffic controller at the Moonee Valley drive-through testing site, managed to catch the virus.

He tested positive on Wednesday, two days after developing symptoms, and his close contacts have so far tested negative.

He was unvaccinated.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said Friday’s new cases were linked to Bacchus Marsh Grammar, a Richmond apartment block outbreak and Trinity Grammar School.

Victoria has six COVID patients in hospital, including two in intensive care.

About 13,000 people remain in isolation across Victoria.

“Overwhelmingly, well into the high 90 per cents, are all doing the right thing in isolating throughout,” Mr Foley said.

“All of which points to the fact that our response to these outbreaks is working – and it is working because Victorians support making sure that we drive these cases down to zero while we look at other ways to get ourselves back to a COVID normal. But we’re not there yet.”

Authorities have also urged people in Camberwell and Caroline Springs to get tested if they have even mild symptoms, after wastewater testing in both areas showed virus fragments. The Caroline Springs detection includes: Albanvale, Burnside, Burnside Heights, Deer Park, Delahey, Hillside, Keilor Downs, Kings Park, Plumpton, Sydenham, Taylors Hill, and Taylors Lakes.

“That is a lot of communities and a lot of people but the wastewater detection is our early warning signal,” Mr Foley said.

“If you are showing the slightest of symptoms, come forward and get yourself tested.”

-with AAP

Topics: victoria
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