Covid Victoria: Infected man may have worked after test as no new cases recorded

Victorians are being urged to get tested for Covid as the list of exposure sites grows after two men who tested positive were revealed to have the highly infectious Delta strain.

Covid restrictions have been further relaxed but the threat isn’t over with two new community cases linked to the Sydney outbreak. Picture: David Geraghty

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Melbourne’s latest coronavirus cluster hasn’t grown overnight but the state’s two new coronavirus cases, which were announced on Thursday, are carrying the highly infectious Delta strain, chief health officer Brett Sutton confirmed.

Two cases linked to the Sydney outbreak — which were both announced on Thursday night — include a man who caught the virus while visiting his daughter in Sydney. That man is then understood to have infected his boss at a Sandringham dry cleaners, which has since been closed.

Prof Sutton said QR code data from the dry cleaning business was being analysed by health authorities on Friday.

“I take this opportunity to urge anyone who has visited that dry cleaners earlier in the week, before they did the right thing and closed down, to come forward and get tested urgently. As a tier 1 site, you will need to get tested and to isolate for 14 days.”

Prof Sutton also said it was “possible” that the first infected man may have been at the workplace while awaiting his test result.

The family members of the man who owns the dry cleaning business have tested negative, but will remain in isolation for 14 days.

The man has since been moved to the Holiday Inn health hotel.

It comes amid revelations the man’s daughter was the host of the West Hoxton party in Sydney, which has now been deemed a “super spreading event”.

Prof Sutton said he wasn’t sure how many positive cases may come from the new cluster.

“It’s very hard to say. I don’t know,” he said.

He added the risk of exchanging clothes at a dry cleaners wasn’t necessarily a “high risk” environment.

Health Minister Martin Foley said the newly infected man visited his daughter in Sydney when it was a green zone.

An investigation is under way to determine if residents of the Oakleigh apartment complex – where the first man who contracted the virus lives – would be required to isolate for a full 14 days.

Additional testing sites will be open to support those in the Oakleigh and Sandringham areas.

“We have got an individual who is infectious enough to have infected a co-worker” he said.

“The time spent in a dry cleaners is not so much, but we know enough about the Delta variant that you don’t need much time in order to be potentially infected. So, just attending for however long is a risk.”

Professor Sutton urged people to keep monitoring the latest exposure sites on the DHHS website.

“Do the right thing and get tested immediately,” he said.

Health Minister Martin Foley said the newly infected man’s Sydney trip happened when the area was a green zone.

“We have sent more than 13,000 messages to people last night who arrived between 11 June and 25 June from those areas, who had previously been considered green zone arrivals at that time.”

“We are asking those 13,000 people to get tested and to isolate until they receive a negative test.

A text message has been sent out to all 126 passengers on the Jetstar flight from Sydney. They will all be required to be interviewed by health authorities.

Despite the new scare, Melbourne’s restrictions eased as planned at 11.59pm on Thursday night.

Acting Premier James Merlino on Thursday said Victorians couldn’t afford to become complacent, adding that testing and getting vaccinated were two of the most important things to combat the new outbreak.

Mr Merlino is now fully vaccinated, after receiving his second dose of Pfizer on Thursday.

TRAINS ON LIST OF NEW EXPOSURE SITES

The two cases linked to the Sandringham dry cleaners have sparked new exposure sites across Melbourne.

Ten tier two and tier three exposure sites were added on Thursday night.

Three train stations were listed as exposure sites on June 20.

Broadmeadows Train Station from 7.55pm to 8.15pm, Flinders Street Station from 8.38pm to 8.52pm and Oakleigh Train Station from 9.15pm to 9.30pm.

Anyone who was at these stations during these times must monitor for symptoms and get tested and isolate if symptoms develop.

The trains from these stations were the 8.15pm to 8.38pm inbound train from Broadmeadows to Flinders Street and the 8.52pm to 9.15pm outbound train from Flinders Street to Oakleigh.

Anyone who was on these trains must get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.

Anyone who was in Terminal 4 between 6.55pm and 7.40pm on June 20 must get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.

Anyone who visited Sandringham Dry Cleaners, on Bay Rd, on June 23, from 7.30am to 5.30pm, on June 22, from 10am to 3pm, or on June 21, from 9am to 4pm must also get tested and quarantine for 14 days from the time of exposure.

Follow the health advice if you visited any of the locations listed.

NSW HIT WITH NEW SPIKE IN CASES

Twenty two new cases of Covid have been recorded in NSW in a concerning spike for the Sydney outbreak.

NSW Health said there were 11 new cases on Friday, but six of those were already reported yesterday, making five of them new.

Another 17 infections were recorded after the 8pm cut off and will be included in Saturday’s numbers.

Earlier, University of Melbourne epidemiologist, Professor Tony Blakely warned a delay in announcing further restrictions meant a lockdown would be “longer and harder”.

“Each day you delay means that if you need a lockdown, which I think is more than likely now, it will be longer and harder if they don’t do it soon,” he told ABC News Breakfast

He believed there was a “50/50” chance NSW would get through this outbreak without a lockdown.

Read the full version of this story, here.

INFECTED DRY CLEANER SPEAKS OUT

The update comes as thhe owner of Sandringham Dry Cleaners Henry Li received his positive result on Thursday.

The 61-year old said his wife and two sons had tested negative on Thursday but were still awaiting results for his nephew’s test.

Mr Li said he had been in contact with the Health Department and was expecting to move into a health hotel on Thursday night, to protect his family.

He told the Herald Sun the Health Department had supported him and would do deep cleaning of the store.

He said he hasn’t started contact tracing yet – having only just tested positive – but that in the past few days he hasn’t gone out much.

“I’m lucky in the past few days I didn’t really go out, just going between working and home.”

He said he did go shopping on one day, but he “always wears a mask” and checks in.

He said it was a “bad feeling” knowing his customers were exposed when they visited his business and that they all had to be contacted and placed into isolation.

A man who has been diagnosed with Covid caught a Jetstar flight to Melbourne from Sydney on Sunday. Picture: Sarah Matray

He told the Herald Sun he hopes he hasn’t passed Covid on to anyone else.

“I hope this stops with me,” he said.

“I hope everyone is safe.”

It is believed Mr Li caught the virus from an employee at the dry cleaners, who tested positive on Thursday morning after returning from Sydney on Sunday.

The employee, who lives in Oakleigh and works as a dry cleaner in Sandringham, caught Jetstar flight JQ523 on June 20, leaving Sydney at 5.30pm and arriving in Melbourne at 7.05pm.

There were 126 primary close contacts that have been initially identified, plus flight crew on that flight.

All must now quarantine for 14 days from the time of exposure.

The health department said the owner was the man’s only workplace close contact.