Melbourne’s sixth lockdown has been extended for a further seven days after Victoria recorded 20 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, announced the lockdown would be extended until 11.59pm on Thursday 19 August, with five of the 20 new cases not yet being linked to the existing outbreak.
Although authorities were confident of linking these cases in the next few days, Andrews said more time was needed.
“This is very challenging, I know, for every single Victorian who would like to be going about their business, they would like to be open and have a degree of freedom that is simply not possible because of this Delta variant,” he said.
“The extreme infectivity of this virus, in a very short space of time, if we were to open, we would see cases akin to what’s happening, sadly, in Sydney right now.”
Andrews would not rule out the lockdown being lifted if the situation improved, but said people should brace for the lockdown to last the full week.
“We will not have these restrictions on any longer than they need to be, and if the situation changes and we get advice to say 100% of cases are isolating, where mysteries are no longer mysteries because we have been able to find links there, we will not rule that out; but people need to brace themselves that there will be another week, and we will all work as hard as we can.”
Andrews also announced changes to the border bubble with New South Wales. While residents in those areas can only travel within the bubble for six reasons, he said the Victorian government would require them to have a permit from 6pm on Friday. This would give the government a clearer understanding of who was travelling in those areas in the event the outbreak from NSW reached the border.
“Before anyone says, ‘Why would you do that?’ – if this virus can get from Sydney to Byron Bay to Armidale, then only a fool would think it couldn’t get to Albury. It absolutely can. We need to go beyond a bubble,” he said.
“We need to have as much information as possible about who is moving in that border bubble.”
The two priority areas for contact tracers in the state are now the Caroline Springs shopping centre, which accounts for 29 cases in this outbreak, and the City of Melton, which has recorded 13 cases.
Of the 20 new cases on Wednesday, one is a student at Al-Taqwa College, and five were household members of other students at the college. All six were in isolation while infectious.
Five were household contacts of students at the Mount Alexander College. Four were cases associated with the Caroline Springs shopping centre, two associated with the Jolly Miller cafe, one with the YPA Estate Agents and one with the Edwards Sourdough bakery. Two of those cases were not in isolation.
The remaining five were mystery cases that were infectious in the community. Victoria’s Covid commander, Jeroen Weimar, said he was “confident” the cases would be linked in the next day or two. Three are a family from the City of Melton – two parents and a child. The child was already isolating as a contact of another primary close contact, but there was no direct link yet.
A father and a son in the City of Melbourne also tested positive. The son is a grade 1 student at St Michael’s primary school in North Melbourne who was not at school while infectious, but his classmates were classified as tier 1 exposures while the rest of the school was tier 2.
His father worked at the eye clinic at the Royal Children’s hospital Melbourne last Monday. Patients and staff were being contacted, and part of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear hospital was also being listed as a tier 2 exposure site.
There were 41,571 Covid tests in the previous 24 hours, with over 250,000 tests this week alone. There are now 13,800 people isolating as primary close contacts connected with this outbreak.
Wait times at several testing sites in Caroline Springs and Melton were up to three hours, and Andrews encouraged people to check the Victorian health department website to see waiting times at nearby testing sites and go to those instead.
Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, indicated restrictions on travelling between NSW and Victoria would remain until late in the year.
Andrews also confirmed the Victorian government would be chasing over 24,000 unpaid Covid fines.
Meanwhile, Queensland announced the lifting of a three-day lockdown in Cairns. Some restrictions, including a requirement to wear masks in public, will remain in place.
Four new cases were recorded in Queensland – all were people in home quarantine and linked to the Brisbane western suburbs cluster.
The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said the result was “absolutely tremendous”.
“A week ago, I think everyone was worried about where we would end up with this cluster,” Palaszczuk said.
“It was our biggest challenge. And Queenslanders absolutely rose to that challenge, and it’s through your hard work that we’re in this fantastic situation today.”
