Victoria records 15 new local Covid-19 cases as exposure sites surge past 400 venues

Another Melbourne school has been exposed to coronavirus as health authorities detailed four new mystery cases.

There are fears another school community has been exposed to coronavirus after more mystery cases emerged in Melbourne.

A student at Glenroy West Primary School was initially one of three mystery cases detected across two “entirely separate and unconnected” households in the city’s northern suburbs.

But on Friday, Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton said there were two more linked to that school – one was another student and another was a household contact.

Professor Sutton confirmed another school had also been exposed to Covid-19.

“In addition there‘s one household contact of one of yesterday’s Glenroy cases who’s a student at another primary school and we’ll provide details of that when the school’s been contacted this afternoon,” he said.

That case was one of four new mystery cases on Friday as Victoria recorded 15 new locally acquired infections – 11 were linked to existing outbreaks.

Victoria recorded 15 new local cases on Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Matray

One lived in Roxburgh Park, with a link to “one of the school communities that’s being investigated now,” professor Sutton said.

Another case lived in Middle Park and the remaining case lived in Wyndham Vale and worked as a delivery truck driver.

“Those mystery cases as the Premier said are a particular concern,” professor Sutton said.

“These are individuals who don’t know that they were infectious at the time.

“They’ve developed symptoms, gotten tested and done the right thing and isolating.

“They’ve been out in the community within the restrictions imposed in the lockdown but still shopping for food, going out for essential reasons.

“Those exposure sites are quite numerous, because that individual wasn’t already identified.”

It comes as the number of exposure sites listed across the state surged past 400 overnight.

Many of the venues are in Melbourne’s western suburbs, but several sites have been in inner Melbourne, including the popular South Melbourne Market, which has been closed for deep cleaning.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews extended Melbourne’s lockdown for another seven days. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Wayne Taylor

There are now more than 13,700 primary close contacts across Victoria in isolation.

The health department has also warned there may be undetected positive cases in the eastern suburbs of Keysborough, Camberwell and Balwyn, and the western areas Tarneit, Truganina and Williams Landing due to unexpected wastewater detections.

Anyone who lives, works or have visited the following areas on the dates listed have been urged to watch for the slightest symptoms of Covid-19 and get tested immediately if any arise:

Balwyn, Camberwell, Canterbury, Mont Albert and Surrey Hills from August 8 to 11;

Tarneit, Truganina and Williams Landing from August 8 to 11;

Keysborough from August 1 to 6.

No new cases were recorded in hotel quarantine on Friday, with the number of active cases in the state at 148 – up from 137 on Thursday.

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Originally published as Victoria records 15 new local Covid-19 cases as exposure sites surge past 400 venues