D-Day for Delta: Spike in Victoria’s Covid case numbers as 29 new infections recorded

Authorities are investigating whether the latest outbreak is linked to NSW hotel quarantine as they scramble to trace the mystery source that sparked the sixth lockdown. Meanwhile, a Flemington public housing tower has been listed as an exposure site.

Victoria has recorded 29 new cases on its second day of lockdown 6.0. Picture: Con Chronis / AFP

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Health authorities have warned Victoria faces rising coronavirus case numbers as it emerged an extra 150,000 Pfizer doses were on their way after ­intervention by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Victoria has recorded 29 new local cases, with contact tracers scrambling to get on top of the latest outbreak that has sparked a seven-day lockdown.

All of the new cases are linked to previously reported cases and were not in isolation during their infectious period.

Several Werribee supermarkets were listed as exposure sites on Saturday afternoon, forcing many shoppers into self-isolation.

Tier 2 sites include: Woolworths Werribee from 5.45pm to 6.35pm on August 4, ALDI Werribee from 6pm to 6.40pm on August 4, and Coles Werribee from 6.20pm to 7pm on August 4.

The state government holds serious concerns the virus may have already escaped the western suburbs, with the pandemic’s testing commander, Jeroen Weimar, warning the number of exposure sites will continue to rise.

“We did not go into lockdown because we were worried about a few cases in the western suburbs,” he said. “We are worried about a Delta penetration again here in Victoria.

“We’re worried that it might be seeding out quite widely; we’re worried it might be going to places we haven’t yet seen.”

Meanwhile, NSW has recorded 319 cases; its biggest spike since the outbreak started. Nearly 200 of them are still under investigation.

Premier Daniel Andrews said there was arguably “nothing more important” than people getting tested as soon as they showed symptoms.

“That’s how we shut this down,” Mr Andrews said.

“This is very, very significant to see this many cases … There is a certainty that there are more cases out there.”

It comes as the Premier warns of the rapidly moving nature of the Delta variant.

“This will go where the vaccine isn’t,” he said.

“Our system will be overrun if we don’t bring this under control.

“We have it within us to continue to do this work, as tough and gruelling as it is, none of us have the luxury of pretending that this is over.”

He said every Victorian had a role to play in bringing the outbreak to ground.

“I just ask that everyone just pauses and think about the choices you’re making, and whether they are contributing to the spread of the virus, or whether they are helping us to stop the spread of the virus. That’s a pretty simple question to answer,” he said.

Testing commander Jeroen Weimar said genomic testing for the two clusters had not found a match to any other clusters in Victoria or across Australia.

“We are doing ongoing matching with other Australian states. It is very closely associated with the New South Wales cluster and with the city of Hume and other clusters we have worked on here in Victoria there is a close commonality of a Delta strain … but more genomic work is being done. We don’t yet have an absolute match,” he said.

Mr Weimar said two of today’s new cases were old infections and may later be declared not to be of concern.

“They relate to two family members of the city of Maribyrnong case who travelled from Sydney hotel quarantine and returned to Victoria on July 15,” he said.

A Flemington public housing tower has been added to the list of Tier 2 exposure sites after eight members of the same family tested positive.

The family has since been relocated to alternative accommodation.

It is one of the towers plunged into a hard lockdown last year during Victoria’s deadly second wave.

Mr Weimar said of the three quarters of the close contacts of the Al-Taqwa case had returned negative results, as had three quarters of the contacts of Newport Football Club and Spectacle Hub in Caroline Springs.

About 72 per cent of the primary close contacts linked to Wolf Cafe & Eatery in Altona North had also returned negative results, he said.

“I thank the school leadership at Al-Taqwa College and the school community for the active support. We have seen a very busy testing hub with 594 tests done at the college yesterday and over 600 vaccinations at the vaccination hub there over the last two days,” Mr Weimar said.

Mr Andrews said while it was good news the cases were linked, there were still questions over the source of the latest outbreak.

“We’ve got a couple of mystery cases that drive each of the two separate chains of transmission,” he said.

“We simply can’t work out where they got it from. That means that there’s at least two other people out there, and potentially more than that, who have the virus and have given the virus to the people.”

He said investigations had revealed there had been a “bit of visiting going on”, despite restrictions.

But he said that wasn’t limited to just one postcode or multicultural group, adding he thought people across the state were breaching restrictions.

“Of the other people across Melbourne and Victoria who were doing some visiting on the sly thinking that it is all innocent and sly, they got lucky. They didn’t spread it. Others have not been so fortunate,” he said.

HOW THE NEW CASES ARE LINKED

MARIBYRNONG CLUSTER

Four new cases all family members of the index case, including two people who flew into Melbourne from Sydney hotel quarantine on July 15 on flight QF445.

HOBSONS BAY CLUSTER

25 new cases, including:

• 1 family member of the index case

• 4 people linked to Spectacle Hub in Caroline Springs including a worker, customer and two contacts

• 1 Newport Football Club player

• 1 case linked to Australian Islamic College of Melbourne

• 1 linked to Wolf Cafe & Eatery in Altona North

• 15 linked to Al-Taqwa College, including 1 teacher and 14 students

FLEMINGTON TOWER ON ALERT — AGAIN

Ruth Eyakem, a resident and health concierge at the Flemington tower exposure site, said communication from the health department had improved significantly from last year’s hard lockdown.

“Any order that comes from the government without police or force, we’re happy to do it,” she said.

“The last year with the police was a disaster … you don’t need to treat us like prisoners.”

Ms Eyakem received a text message from the Health Department on Saturday morning alerting her the entire building had been identified as a Tier 2 site.

She emphasised the need for consultation in responding to outbreaks among diverse communities.

“They [health authorities] should research and contact our community leaders,” she said.

Younger people had been a key part in keeping residents up to date with the latest health advice, she said.

“A lot of our kids are very educated and working in the community. Our kids help us a lot,” she said.

VACCINE ROLLOUT TO RAMP UP

Victoria’s vaccine rollout will ramp up dramatically in coming days after the federal government decided to send the state an extra 150,000 Pfizer doses before the end of the month. This will see the state’s Pfizer vaccine jabs top half a million a month for the first time in August.

It follows a decision last month to release an extra 150,000 Pfizer doses to locked-down NSW from reserve supplies held by the Commonwealth. Victoria was scheduled to get about 400,000 doses this month but will now get an extra 150,000 starting from August 13. It was meant to get 550,000 Pfizer doses a month starting in September.

Mr Morrison communicated the offer to Premier Daniel Andrews on Friday evening.

“I will always work closely with Dan Andrews and our Premiers to make sure Australians are protected in their time of need,” he said.

Victorians can only leave home for five reasons during the lockdown.

The state opposition called on the government to change its approach to lockdowns, to instead shut down hot spots rather than the entire state.

“The government needs to be a lot more targeted and a lot fairer to people living in areas where there’s no Covid,” opposition leader Michael O’Brien said. “This is too important. We can’t keep living like this.”

The vaccine supply breakthrough comes as authorities were forced to admit “possible” unauthorised home visits had occurred and may have contributed to the virus spreading.

But the government stood by its stance that rulebreakers would not be fined or publicly shamed, despite anti-lockdown protesters being told they would face justice.

“We are not going to win this by turning on each other or by fining our way through,” Mr Weimar said.

Victoria recorded six new locally acquired cases on Friday, all linked to reported cases in the Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong outbreaks but none were in quarantine throughout their infectious period.

Genomic sequencing confirmed both clusters carried the highly infectious Delta strain, but the initial source of transmission for both clusters remained a mystery.

Three new cases are linked to the Maribyrnong cluster, the other three – including two announced on Thursday – to Hobsons Bay.

A dedicated public health team, charged with responding to outbreaks in “sensitive settings”, is supporting the Warringa Park specialist school community after it was revealed one new case attended the Hoppers Crossing facility.

Restaurants have been badly hit by the lockdown, including White Village Greek Tavern in Elsternwick owned by Costa and Debra Karantzas. Picture: Ian Currie

Another case, a man who lives with the Maribyrnong case, was a cleaner at Epworth Hospital in Richmond, but in the administration area and not on a general ward.

Mr Morrison also warned that bosses wanting to force their workers to get vaccinated would need to comply with federal discrimination legislation after national cabinet decided against setting hard-and-fast rules about who could be ordered to get the jab.

He said the question of what bosses were allowed to do would turn on the question of reasonableness, such as where employees were in “regular contact” with the public.

National cabinet has “fully agreed” to live with the virus once 70 per cent of the population is vaccinated, under the Doherty Institute’s modelling, which should mean lockdowns are limited to isolated occasions and abandoned when the country reaches 80 per cent.

Meanwhile, almost 100,000 struggling businesses will have cash payments automatically paid to them under a jointly funded $400m support package announced on Friday.

Another $2800 grant will be deposited to 90,000 businesses, while almost 9000 hospitality venues will receive another round of funding between $5000 and $20,000.

An extra $54m will be added to the small business Covid hardship fund, which provides grants of up to $8000 for small businesses not eligible in other schemes which have experienced a 70 per cent reduction in turnover.

COVID CASES LINKED TO MORE SCHOOLS

In a newsletter sent to families on Friday night, Islamic College of Melbourne in Tarneit principal Dr Abdul M. Kamareddine said the South East Public Health Unit was investigating a confirmed case of coronavirus that attended the college in July.

“We have been advised that as the Public Health Unit could not identify an exact time the case was infectious, all staff, visitors and students are considered close contacts,” Dr Kamareddine said.

He said the school would close until further notice to enable a risk assessment and undergo an environmental clean.

“Unfortunately this means we will be unable to offer on school site supervision as of Monday, August 9.”

Meanwhile, a confirmed case of Covid-19 has also been reported at Kororoit Creek Primary School and its kindergarten in Burnside Heights.

In a newsletter sent to families on Friday evening, Acting principal Alan Noye advised the school was closed to all students and community members until further notice while the Department of Health conducts its investigation.

“The site is now closed to all students, staff and community members until further notice. This means no on-site supervision will be available,” the newsletter said.

Healthdale Christian College’s Werribee campus and Warringa Park School’s Warringa Crescent campus in Hoppers Crossing have also been linked to positive cases and are listed as Tier 2 exposure sites, while Al-Taqwa College in Truganina is a Tier 1 site after a teacher at the school tested positive for Covid.