Victoria records three new local cases of coronavirus as exposure site list grows
A host of major retailers in Melbourne’s southeast are among a bevy of latest additions to the growing list of Victoria’s coronavirus exposure sites.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
This coronavirus article is unlocked and free to read in the interest of community health and safety. Get full digital access to trusted news from the Herald Sun and Leader for just $5 a month for the first three months
Victoria’s latest coronavirus cluster has continued to see cases and exposure sites grow over huge areas of the state, with a bevy of new hot spots added to the list.
Among the affected areas are Ikea Springvale on December 29 between 4pm – 6pm, Kmart Burwood on December 28 between 6.15pm – 6.30pm.
Anyone who was on site during the impacted timeslots are being advised to monitor for symptoms and monitor for symptoms and get tested and isolate if they develop.
An infected person also attended Federation Square on December 23 at 11:00pm.
Chants Summer Carnival opened at Lakes Entrance, which just over a week ago, was forced to close abruptly overnight.
A case attended the carnival on December 29 between 7pm to 9pm, with people present onsite during the time frame told to get tested immediately and quarantine until receiving a negative result.
“Our staff are being tested and will stay isolated at home until we get the negative test result,” organisers said in a statement.
“We will remain closed until this happens.”
People who visited Brighton Beach between midday and 3pm on December 29 have also been warned to monitor for symptoms as Angus and Cootes Jeweller at Southland and Costco Moorabbin were also named as exposure sites.
Other new additions include an Asian grocer in Camberwell, V/Line bus from Lakes Entrance to Bairnsdale, a Bunnings store in Box Hill South and Woolsworths Metro supermarket in Black Rock.
The state on Sunday announced three new cases of coronavirus, all locally acquired, with more than 22,000 Victorians getting tested on Saturday.
There are currently 32 active cases statewide, and deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng said further cases could be expected in close contacts of positive cases associated with the Black Rock cluster.
Meanwhile, 11 new cases have been recorded in NSW, eight of which were locally transmitted.
“We now have 21 cases in this cluster, of which 13 had attended the Thai cafe on the 21 December,” he said.
“This includes the original case from Mentone, a couple linked to the case in Mitcham, a couple who are diagnosed in New South Wales and a number of others, including the three new cases from yesterday.
“So the three new cases from yesterday were all present at the cafe on December 21. The other eight cases are all linked, either directly or indirectly, basically through family gatherings over Christmas.
“As yet, we haven’t found the source, but we are looking at several lines of investigation, including one person that had been in Sydney, but outside the Northern Beaches area.
“We have had more genomic results back, and now a total of 10 isolates, and they are all consistent with transmissions between each other and are also links to the New South Wales cluster.”
Currently, 220 close contacts are in quarantine, with 359 secondary contacts in isolation.
Acting premier Jacinta Allan said Sunday’s numbers came as a relief.
“I think Victorians can take great comfort from today’s numbers,” she said.
“Three cases, all linked to the existing known cluster, and the public health advice is that Victorians should take great comfort from the fact that these are linked cases, strong work has been done by our tracing team, talking to and interviewing the primary and secondary contacts of our cases.”
TESTING CHAOS WITHIN MINUTES OF CENTRES OPENING
Melburnians queued up for hours at testing sites across the city on Sunday morning in the hope of getting swabbed.
Many were left frustrated as some testing sites reached capacity within minutes of opening their doors.
At the Keysborough site, capacity for testing was reached just 15 minutes after the drive-through opened at 8am.
Many people were told to come back to the centre later in the day to try and get tested.
A COVID-19 testing site at Albert Park also reached capacity just moments after it opened to the public, meaning many people who queued for several hours didn’t make the cut.
The line at the Parkdale testing site was more than 1.5km long before testing kicked off shortly before 9am.
Freddie Chavarro was at the top of the queue after arriving at the site at 6.30am.
“I’m really worried about (there being more cases) but everyone is getting tested so that’s a good sign,” the 31 year old Parkdale man said.
Stuart Cochran, 40, also joined the queue at 6.30am to get tested after finding out he had attended an exposure site.
After seeing the long queues at his local testing centre on Saturday, he decided to get up at dawn in the hope of getting tested.
“I live in the street right around the corner and I was tempted to just get out of my car and make a coffee at home, then come back. I’m here for the long haul,” he said.
“I was in the Bunnings that’s an exposure site the day a case was there so I thought it was better to be safe than sorry so I came and got tested.”
The gates at the Parkdale site opened 15 minutes earlier than expected to get through the crowd.
Around 20 frontline staff are tending to crowds at the testing centre.
At the Prahran Town Hall testing site, there was a two-hour wait for a swab.
After booking an appointment for a test in advance, Herald Sun digital producer Sophie Welsh said she was told to join the back of the queue when she arrived.
“This is my fourth time trying to get tested since Friday — I’ve been turned away three times.
“This appointment was booked three days ago and now I’ve just been told to get in line.”
Ms Allan acknowledged the long waits and thanked people for their patience.
“It does show that Victorians are understanding the real importance of going and getting tested, whether they are returned travellers, whether they’ve got any symptoms, it is a really great response for the Victorian community,” she said.
“Today we got over 190 testing sites operational throughout Victoria, so there are more opportunities today for Victorians to get tested.”
All 13 DHHS drive-through sites will extend their opening hours, running from 8am to 8pm.
The Melbourne Showgrounds testing centre will operate between 9.30am to 7pm.
“Yesterday, they were able to do 1027 tests at the Melbourne Showgrounds site alone and that was an increase of 25 per cent on the day before,” Ms Allan said.
“Testing turnaround times continue to be very, very strong — 88 per cent of people receive their test results within 24 hours, and 99.9 per cent of people get their test results within 48-hour periods.”
Despite some testing centres across Melbourne being closed or at capacity over the past week, federal Health Minister Hunt said he was pleased with the Victorian response so far.
After an overhaul of the state’s contact tracing system during the second wave, Mr Hunt said programs in place had been “dramatically improved”.
“I do have confidence in the Victorian government and the response,” Mr Hunt said.
“Victorian testing numbers have more than tripled in the last week, and people who have been on leave … have been called back.
“They’re stepping up — a tripling of testing within Victoria, a contact tracing system which the National Incident Centre believes is dramatically improved.”
But opposition leader Michael O’Brien has described massive lines at COVID testing sites as an “absolute shambles.”
Mr O’Brien slammed the state government’s response to the Black Rock outbreak, saying they needed to have better resources and be more prepared.
“Chaos at testing sites doesn’t keep us safe and it won’t keep us open,” he said.
“Frankly nobody should have to wait for seven hours in a queue to get tested.
“The government needs to fix this and fix this quickly.”
VIRUS CONFIRMED TO HAVE LEAKED FROM NSW
Genetic sequencing confirmed the virus had leaked out of NSW.
While the genetic link to the NSW northern beaches outbreak also provided reassurance Victoria was not dealing with a larger unidentified cluster, Mr Weimar said the fact infectious people had travelled far and wide since December 21 meant more cases were expected.
“Collectively as Victorians, I think we’re on top of this,” Mr Weimar said.
“I would not exclude the possibility we have other chains of transmission out there that we have not yet spotted. The sooner we can identify those, the better we will be.”
Around 60,000 people returned to Victoria over New Year’s, and Mr Weimar urged those who had to make sure they fully understand what’s required of them.
“Our public health advice is proportionate … I appreciate that that can lead to confusion … but please do follow that advice very carefully,” he said.
As Victorians faced tougher containment measures than many NSW residents living close to the outbreak’s epicentre, Health Minister Martin Foley said the state had been through too much to risk another widespread wave.
“This cluster originated from the combined North Shore-Croydon outbreak. It is the science and it is up to Victoria and NSW to work together to get on top of that,” Mr Foley said.
“Victorians have learnt more than most how wildly infectious and easily moved around the community this virus is.”
He could not rule out further measures being enforced.
“If the science and the advice changes then our response changes,” he said.
“If the public health advice is that there are more measures needed to be taken to stay ahead of this, then that is exactly what we will do.”
An unknown number of Victorians trapped in NSW are being offered the chance to apply for exemptions to cross the border, provided they can prove they have special or medical needs.
At least 1500 exemption applications are currently before Victorian authorities, after the state slammed its borders shut to NSW on Friday.
However, Mr Weimar warned it would take up to 48 hours for the chief health officer or a delegate to assess each application.
“Anybody who is still in NSW and has a particular need or desire to come back into Victoria, do not come to the border, do not get on a plane and try to get to the airport — you will be turned back.”
Those ordered to undergo coronavirus tests and isolate after returning from NSW in recent days will face regular compliance checks from DHHS officers.
TEST SITES BUCKLING AT DEMAND
Victorians are being turned away from COVID-19 testing sites as authorities scramble to boost capacity to meet demand.
Non-urgent medical personnel are being diverted to aid the testing effort, with more sites set up and opening hours extended across the state.
COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar has urged people to persist and return for testing if turned away.
“If people have not been able to get to a test centre yet or they have attended a centre and haven’t been able to get through the queues … I would ask you to go and do it tomorrow,” Mr Weimar said.
Demand for testing has surged after Victoria’s first cases since November were detected on Wednesday.
The high demand has been driven by the requirement for Victorians returning from NSW to get tested as well as testing for close contacts and people who have been to exposure sites.
In Omeo, one person who tried to get a COVID test was told they had to drive 120km to Bairnsdale as the site wasn’t able to process tests on the weekend.
The Alfred Hospital’s coronavirus testing clinic closed due to overwhelming demand for the second day in a row on Saturday. By 3pm, people were being turned away by security staff, despite the clinic’s opening hours listed as 8am-6pm.
The security guard told people arriving to come back Sunday morning.
A Melbourne couple who raced home from NSW ahead of the hard border closure were twice turned away from testing when they arrived home.
The Victorian government has ordered people who have just returned from NSW to get tested.
Ross Cundari and wife Wendy said they were turned away at the Northern Hospital’s testing site on Friday.
“We went to the Northern (Hospital) twice today and both times got told to ‘nup, go away’,” Ms Cundari said, adding there was a sign saying COVID testing had been “suspended”.
“We said ‘what do we do? And he goes ‘oh, come back in a few hours’ … we’re not doing any more. It’s full.”
On their return, the couple were again turned away.
More testing centres have opened and hours have been extended, which should see testing capacity increased by 15 to 20 per cent.
“They will be busy again today. We had people queuing up from 7am,” Mr Weimar said on Saturday.
“We expect our northern and regional sites to be a little bit quieter today as we have seen a lot of the returning travellers now get back to their place of residence.
“I expect the metropolitan and suburban testing sites to be busier today than they were yesterday.
“If you can’t get through the queues, I will ask you to isolate. As many people did this morning, they got out there early and settled in for a couple of hours’ wait before the test centre was open. I appreciate that is not what we want to do on a Saturday morning, but as a community we really need to get this one to ground.”
Mr Weimar apologised for the delays but said they were not an excuse to skip testing.
“Just because a queue is a bit long doesn’t mean there is a reason not to bother going and getting tested, I’m going to the beach instead.”
Join the conversation
Sutton dragged into legal fight on cancelled Robbie Williams gig
A war of words has broken out about former Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton’s involvement in the decision to pull the pin on Robbie Williams’ Grand Prix concert.
Read more
Melbourne lockdown protesters sue over cops’ ‘unjustified violence’
Protesters are taking legal action after a judge ruled Victoria Police used “unlawful” and “unjustified violence” the day of their arrests during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read more