20 new Covid cases, dashing Melbourne’s hopes of exiting lockdown on time
Workers and shoppers at a Caroline Springs shopping centre are isolating after they were deemed close contacts. It comes as a doctor at Royal Children’s Hospital contracted Covid.
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Patients could face disruptions at major Melbourne hospitals after a doctor became one of the state’s latest Covid-19 cases.
The specialist, who works at the Royal Children’s and Royal Victorian Eye and Ear hospitals as well as in a private clinic, was confirmed to have Covid along with other members of the doctor’s household on Tuesday.
Contact tracers on Tuesday night were still investigating the doctor’s movements and potential impacts on the hospitals and were yet to classify any locations as exposure sites.
The doctor’s most recent clinic at the RCH was on Friday, a day before they are understood to have become infected. The RCH will still test staff and patients who were present at the hospital on Friday as a precaution.
It is understood the doctor had not worked at the Eye and Ear Hospital while infectious.
However, it is understood the doctor had attended a private clinic next door to the RCH at 48 Flemington Rd – a building which also houses other clinics – while infectious.
Meanwhile, workers at Caroline Springs Square Shopping Centre have been forced to isolate after all on-site staff were deemed close contacts.
On Tuesday night the health department advised anyone who worked at the centre between August 2 to August 5 must get tested and isolate for 14 days.
Visitors to the centre on August 6 at any time must get tested and isolate until a negative result is received after it was deemed a Tier 2 exposure site.
The new advice could impact hundreds of workers, with the centre housing an Aldi, Coles and Target.
The state’s Covid cases spiked once again with 20 new infections emerging overnight.
One of Tuesday’s new Covid cases lives within the now-unlocked Geelong region.
The person, from Lara, had been linked to the current outbreak in metropolitan Melbourne.
While a second Flemington public housing tower was identified as an exposure site.
Anyone who visited the tower at 126 Racecourse Road between 12am on August 4 to 11.59pm on August 9 must now get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
It’s understood some individuals will be considered Tier 1 contacts and will be contacted directly by the health department.
Barwon South West Public Health Unit Director Professor Eugene Athan said the person from Lara had been in isolation for their infectious period.
There are no known local exposure sites linked to the case.
“The BSW Public Health Unit is supporting metropolitan areas with contact tracing and exposure site management,” Mr Athan said.
“The number of people seeking COVID-19 testing locally has increased and there is an ability to expand testing capacity and opening times if required.”
A suburb in Melbourne’s northwest is the state’s biggest Covid concern after half of Victoria’s latest infections were linked to a local shopping centre.
Of Tuesday’s five cases, which had been in isolation throughout their infectious period, two are linked to CS Square in Caroline Springs, one is a member of the Newport Football Club, one is linked to the Newport family cluster, and the other is linked to Al-Taqwa College in Truganina.
Of the new cases, which are all linked to known outbreaks, five were in isolation throughout their infectious period.
There are 111 active cases, and almost 35,000 people turned out for a test on Monday.
Covid commander Jeroen Weimar on Tuesday urged anyone who had been to CS Square in Caroline Springs to immediately get tested and isolate. So far, 25 cases have been linked tot he shopping centre.
“I need those (testing) numbers to increase,” he said.
“We need to see more people in the Caroline Springs area coming forward for testing. It is a busy and important shopping centre.”
Ten of Tuesday’s 20 infections were linked to the shopping centre — four linked to YPA real estate, three linked to the Jolly Miller Cafe, two shoppers and a Pacific Smiles Dentist worker.
Three infections are linked to the Newport Football Club, along with another three at Mount Alexander College, two household contacts from the original Newport family cluster, and a student from Al-Taqwa College.
The final case is a person who worked with a Jolly Miller Cafe staffer at another location.
Three of Tuesday’s cases are residents of the Flemington public housing towers, who have been moved to alternative accommodation.
The number of exposure sites across Melbourne swelled again, with a Myer, several supermarkets, a Bunnings and a Chemist Warehouse added to the list.
At least 57 venues have been added since Monday afternoon, taking the total number of sites exposed to Covid-19 to 246.
Many of the venues are in Melbourne’s western suburbs, but several sites have been added in Bayswater North, Heidelberg West and Preston.
A Tier 1 exposure site was also updated, with the cosmetics fragrance department at Myer Highpoint declared a Tier 1 site for August 1 between 1.30pm to 2pm.
Bunnings in Preston and Taylors Lakes were also added.
Meanwhile, NSW has announced another horror day with a record high of 356 new local cases overnight, with 147 linked to a known case or cluster.
Four elderly people have also died, bringing the outbreak’s death toll to 32.
Just 102 of the new infections were in isolation throughout their infectious period.
There is also fury in locked-down Byron Bay after an infected Sydney man visited the community while “visibly sick” with Covid and refused to sign into QR codes at a string of venues.
The man, who travelled to Byron Bay with his two children while infectious, has been accused of not believing in the virus.
YOUNG VICTORIANS RUSH TO GET THE JAB
Young people are coming forward to get vaccinated in record numbers after the state expanded its vaccine accessibility this week.
The state administered 2366 first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday, Health Minister Martin Foley said.
Mr Foley said that is a “more than three-fold increase” when compared to the Monday of the previous week.
“It gives strong emphasis to the fact that young people in particular, under-39s want to get vaccinated,” he said.
“Clearly, young people have assessed their personal situation in a strong and informed manner and many are determining that there are significant risks in remaining unvaccinated during the Delta outbreak.
“And during lockdown, and they’ve made a balanced and straight forward decision as to where their interests and the community’s interest lies.
“They know it’s not just about them. Young people are coming forward to get vaccinated. They’re doing it for themselves, doing it for their family and doing it for their local community and sporting clubs, cultural organisations.
“They’re doing it for their workplaces and they’re doing it because they want to get to a Covid-normal world as rapidly as we possibly can and getting vaccinated within the restrictions of supply that we’re operating under is their contribution. Many are also doing it for their school mates and their university friends.”
Victorians who rushed to book their Covid vaccines were making one appointment every seven seconds, according to Premier Daniel Andrews.
The state government announced the expanded access to AstraZeneca on Sunday, with bookings available the following day.
Since then, more than 13,000 Victorians have scheduled a vaccine appointment.
“When you arrive at your appointment there will be a doctor who will talk with you about the risks and make sure you’re making an informed choice,” he wrote.
“If you’re good to go, then one of the team at the clinic will give you a jab – and probably a lollypop — and ask you to stick around for 15 minutes.
“After 12 weeks it will be time for your second dose, then you’ll be protected.”
The state also marked a small milestone, with no Covid cases receiving intensive care treatment, although two remain in hospital.
Despite the spike in cases, Mr Foley refused to speculate on an extension of lockdown past Thursday night.
He said: “I don’t know what the future brings, the crystal ball hasn’t fired up lately.”
PLEAS FOR CITY’S FRINGE TO BE FREED
Areas on the outer edge of metropolitan Melbourne that haven’t recorded a Covid case in more than a year are begging to be freed from lockdown, in line with regional Victoria.
Business owners in outer Cardinia Shire, on the Mornington Peninsula and in the Yarra Valley – all metro zones under Covid rules – are growing increasingly frustrated at their designation.
It comes as the likelihood of Melbourne exiting lockdown on Thursday night continues to decline, with sources close to the Health Department revealing it was quickly becoming unattainable.
Health bosses hold significant concerns about the risk of a potential super-spreading event this weekend if metropolitan Melbourne was to open as planned.
Case numbers on Tuesday and Wednesday will be closely examined before authorities make a final judgment, but one theory is that Melbourne could open early next week if infections fall.
The state recorded 11 new locally acquired cases on Monday. All were linked to two known clusters in the western suburbs but only one person had been in isolation throughout their infectious period.
Premier Daniel Andrews said although it was a good sign one case had been “tucked away”, it was “far too soon” to make a definitive judgment about a lockdown extension.
“Things can move rapidly but I just can’t predict what’s going to happen on Thursday … it’s not a tick and flick. It’s a detailed process the government goes through to determine what is proportionate.”
Regional Victoria was given the green light to reopen from 11.59pm on Monday, after chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton declared the risk had significantly lessened given there had been no exposure sites or cases.
The Premier is refusing to review the metro boundaries, and said lockdown-specific postcodes wouldn’t work, referencing the worsening situation in greater Sydney.
“If you want to see whether locking down some local government areas works, have a look at what’s going on up there,” he said.
“We tried that last year. It didn’t work against last year’s coronavirus, let alone Delta. We will not be instituting partial lockdowns of one LGA, because what starts as one (case) finishes up as 16 or 17 reasonably quickly.”
The town of Garfield, in Melbourne’s far southeast, less than 10km from where the regional Victoria boundary begins at Longwarry, has long been calling to be reclassified.
It has a population of less than 2000 and has never recorded a case of coronavirus but is locked down because it is part of the metropolitan shire of Cardinia, which also includes the growth suburbs of Pakenham and Officer.
Shire mayor Brett Owen said the council would welcome “any consideration” that acknowledged the “unique qualities of our shire and local communities, including an understanding of the diverse geography in Cardinia Shire”.
Garfield Hotel owner Brad Alden-Brown said it was “ludicrous” the town was still being considered metropolitan.
“A pony walked into our bar six weeks ago. You just have to step foot in our town to see that we’re so far away from anything that’s considered metropolitan,” he said.
“We haven’t had any cases whatsoever. This classification has affected us hugely, and these stop/start lockdowns are absolutely killing small businesses.”
Narracan MP Gary Blackwood, who represents rural towns on the shire edge, including Garfield, Bunyip and Tynong, said the government had failed to review the appropriateness of the metro boundary.
“These communities are not metropolitan. They’re farming and agricultural areas,” he said.
“There is no reason why these communities should suffer more pain than is justified. They rely on local trade to survive and that is almost impossible under the current restrictions.”
Police have warned Melburnians against trying to sneak into regional Victoria, saying they face a $5452 fine.
Two hundred police officers will start roving patrols from Tuesday as restrictions begin to lift.
Mr Andrews warned Melburnians not to violate restrictions by visiting regional Victoria, saying those who did wouldn’t get as far as “buying a litre of milk” without being questioned about whether they were local residents.
Commander Deb Robertson said officers on highways, main roads and back roads would use automatic number plate recognition technology to ensure people were obeying the rules.
“Anyone trying to sneak out of Melbourne and drive through the back roads, I implore them not to do it,” she said. “We will be out in force.”
Victoria’s new cases included seven people linked to the CS Square shopping centre in Caroline Springs, another student at Al-Taqwa College and a coach and teammate at the Newport Football Club.
Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said authorities were “quite concerned” about the CS Square site, urging anyone who visited the centre between July 27 and August 5 to immediately get tested.
Meanwhile, 27 medical staff at Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital in St Albans have been put on leave after a positive case attended the site.
DRIVE-THROUGH JAB HUB BOOKED OUT
Victorians have booked out Australia’s first drive-through vaccination clinic for several weeks as drivers got the go-ahead to roll up their sleeves for a dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday.
Cars snaked through the carpark and down the street at a former Bunnings Warehouse in Melton where up to 10,000 vaccine doses are to be given a week.
The state government said the site had proved so popular, appointments were booked out for at least four weeks.
Melton residents Adan and Kate were among the first people who entered the drive-through site about 8.30am on Monday with their young son in tow.
The couple, in their mid-30s, said the new clinic was very convenient after Adan had his original appointment booked at a site in Ballarat.
“That was originally the closest (vaccination site) we could get,” Adan said.
“We live just down the road, so we are very lucky.”
Kate said anyone who was eligible should roll up their sleeve right away.
“Get straight to it. It’s really easy,” Kate said.
Melton local Peter was among the first people to receive his Pfizer vaccine at the new drive-through hub.
His message for eligible Victorians was clear: “Get jabbed so we can get out of lockdown,” he said. “This (lockdown) is bullshit.”
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