Contact tracers’ massive task after Victoria identifies three more COVID cases
Residents of 11 Melbourne suburbs are being to urged to be tested without delay. Photo: ABC
Three new coronavirus cases have been identified in Victoria in the past 24 hours — two locally acquired cases and one in hotel quarantine.
Health Minister Martin Foley said the two new locally acquired cases were both linked to the Holiday Inn hotel quarantine COVID-19 cluster which has now risen to 16.
They are a woman and a child from separate households who attended a function centre in Coburg in Melbourne’s north.
They have both been in isolation since February 12 and tested positive yesterday.
Mr Foley said tracing interviews were underway and new exposure sites had been added across Melbourne’s north.
The included the Elite Swimming in Pascoe Vale, Woolworths at Broadmeadows, Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses at Broadmeadows, and the Oak Park Sports and Aquatic Centre at Pascoe Vale.
Anyone who visited those locations must get tested and isolate for 14 days. See the chart at the bottom of this article for the exposure dates and times.
There were now 21 active cases in the state and 21,475 test results had been received in the past day.
It is not yet known if the new cases are linked to the outbreak in hotel quarantine at the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport.
That outbreak currently stands at 14 cases, all of which involve the highly virulent UK strain.
Yesterday, a person who was friends with one of the Holiday Inn workers tested positive and 38 close contacts were told to isolate.
The Holiday Inn cluster is dominated by the virulent UK strain of COVID-19. Photo: AAP
Sunday is the second day of a five-day “circuit-breaker” lockdown aimed at preventing the spread of the UK variant of coronavirus which was spread in hotel quarantine.
Under the stage four restrictions, Victorians are only allowed to leave home for shopping, caregiving, exercise and essential work, and they must remain within five kilometres of their home.
There are currently 996 primary close contacts linked to the outbreak.
A worker at the Brunetti cafe at Melbourne Airport’s terminal worked while infectious. On Saturday, Premier Daniel Andrews said it was good news that 11 of the 12 staff who worked there had tested negative.
Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Omar Khorshid said the hotel quarantine system was still falling short despite an overhaul.
“It is curious and interesting that Victoria has had the worst breaches so far,” Dr Khorshid said.
“That may be bad luck but it could also be differences in the way that the quarantine program is being managed by the new body, COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria, and the Department of Health.”
More wires crossed
The Department of Health said a number of people were mistakenly contacted and told they were primary close contacts of the Brunetti cafe exposure site at Melbourne Airport’s terminal four.
Some passengers in terminal one received a text message intended for those who attended terminal four.
The department said the Commonwealth’s national incident room passed on the contact details of people arriving and departing through terminal four but the list also included a number of departures and arrivals from terminal one.
