Slight reprieve for Sydney, Victorian teen’s close contacts return negative coronavirus tests
Victoria Police has denied entry to a number of travellers trying to cross the border into Victoria from NSW.
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All close contacts of a 15-year-old Victorian girl who contracted COVID-19 while holidaying in Sydney have tested negative for the virus.
Victoria’s testing commander Jeroen Weimar on Wednesday confirmed that two people who were living in the same house as the girl did not appear to have the disease or become infectious.
They will still be required to isolate for 14 days but the results means that there are no high-risk exposure sites for Victoria and that secondary contacts will no longer need to quarantine.
The girls mother, who travelled with her on the car trip back from Sydney to the Moonee Valley local government area, has also tested negative.
Mr Weimar said the results were welcome news but urged all Victorians to remain vigilant, particularly those on permits returning from NSW.
He said the girl may not have infected others because of the virus’ incubation period.
“People are not equally infectious to other people,” he said.
“It may well be entirely possible that this girl continues her infectious cycle and that nobody else in the household contracts COVID-19.”
Mr Weimar said there would be as many as 60 testing sites open over Christmas and Boxing Day, but that local GPs and other smaller venues may not have regular opening hours.
“The virus doesn’t stop for Christmas, we don’t stop for Christmas,” he said.
“If you’ve got symptoms on Christmas Day, go and get tested on Christmas Day.”
100 CARS TURNED AWAY AT VIC BORDER
Police have turned away more than 100 vehicles trying to enter Victoria without valid permits.
About 700 Victoria Police officers are guarding the Victorian/NSW border to prevent the NSW’s coronavirus cluster from spreading into Victoria.
A total of 102 vehicles have been barred from entering Victoria since the border security operation began midnight Sunday.
The permits allow people in NSW’s “green zone” to enter Victoria.
Those who visited Greater Sydney or the Central Coast since December 11 are no longer able to return to Victoria without completing 14 days mandatory hotel quarantine.
EIGHT CASES RECORDED IN NSW
New South Wales has recorded eight cases of local transmission in NSW overnight, seven linked to the Avalon cluster.
The state’s premier Gladys Berejiklian also revealed how people in Sydney will be allowed to celebrate Christmas amid the city’s coronavirus outbreak.
Sydneysiders will be allowed to have Christmas with up to 10 family and friends at home under new coronavirus restrictions announced on Wednesday, not including children.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced “modest changes” to Sydney’s coronavirus restrictions over the Christmas period.
From Christmas Eve until Boxing Day residents in greater Sydney will be able to have 10 people over to their home plus children aged under 12.
After Boxing Day the restrictions will revert back to 10 people in a home including children under 12.
Residents in the northern region of the northern beaches can have five other people from the same region in their homes.
Residents in the southern region of the northern beaches will be able to have 10 people in their homes. They cannot leave the area but people will be able to visit from greater Sydney.
Ms Berejiklian said on December 27 the restrictions would revert back to the current lockdown provisions.
TEXT BUNGLE ALMOST DERAILS CHRISTMAS PLANS
A communication bungle in which multiple people who visited a testing site in Melbourne over the past week were told to isolate over Christmas and New Years has been identified by authorities.
Several people who visited the hospital for a test were texted on Wednesday morning informing them they were close contacts of a positive case and needed to isolate, even if their test had come back negative.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the issue on Wednesday morning.
“We have received reports that a number of people with a negative COVID-19 test result may have received a text message from a metro Melbourne hospital informing them that they need to isolate for 14 days,” the spokesman said.
“We have followed up with this hospital to correct the messaging error, and they have confirmed they will send a follow-up SMS with the right instructions.”
The spokeswoman apologised for the inconvenience.
It comes as 4296 people applied for exemption permits to leave the Greater Sydney area and return to Victoria on Sunday.
A total of 35 people have been detained for returning from the red zone by air without exemption permits
The 15-year-old Moonee Valley girl who contracted coronavirus has been tested twice and both tests have been positive.
She was asymptomatic at time of first test but now has symptoms
Victoria reported just one new internationally case of coronavirus on Wednesday.
A whopping 22,956 Victorians were tested for the virus on Tuesday.
Victorian authorities remain on high alert after a Melbourne teenager tested positive to COVID-19 after visiting a Sydney hot spot last week, prompting a warning that the pandemic was “far from over”.
The 15-year-old girl tested positive on Monday while in isolation after driving home to the Moonee Valley area with her mother on December 18.
About 300 people already in Victoria have been in close contact with the Sydney cluster and are awaiting their test results.
Department of Health and Human Services testing commander Jeroen Weimar said he expected that number would grow.
“These are people who we know have been in the red zone or the amber zone and who we are continuing to pursue in terms of testing results and isolation requirements,” he said.
“I expect that number to grow over the coming days as we get test results for remaining returning travellers.”
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said “leakage” from the NSW cluster was to be expected and urged people to get tested.
“Given the large size of the outbreak in NSW, it is not unexpected that we would experience some localised cases in Victoria,” he said.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley warned the pandemic was “not over by a long shot” after the positive case interrupted a 53-day streak.
“We should take this as a really significant lesson that this is not over,” Mr Foley said.
“We need to work hard every day between now and when every Australian is vaccinated to keep us all safe.”
He said there were “many, many” people who had re-entered Melbourne from Sydney exposure sites.
Questions remain over whether any close contacts of the positive girl may have been infected and visited locations in Victoria.
Mr Weimar said authorities were still working through the details, with the teen’s mother the greatest risk of infection but already having returned a negative result.
MUTANT STRAIN IN VICTORIA
A mutated form of the coronavirus has been found in Victoria, sparking concerns over arrivals from England.
The two cases were picked up in returned travellers in hotel quarantine, along with another two cases in NSW.
The UK COVID-19 variant – believed to up to 70 per cent more contagious – has sparked widespread border closures across the world.
But chief medical officer Paul Kelly said the altered virus was, at this stage, largely a “concern in the UK” and the Australian hotel quarantine system should be trusted.
“Here in Australia, we have our ways of dealing with people coming from overseas in terms of our hotel quarantine system … that has been extremely effective in controlling any virus that may be coming from other parts of the world,” he said.
“We put faith in that.”
Australia’s peak body of medical experts – the AHPPC – met on Tuesday to discuss the developments.
“Four cases with this variant have been documented in Australia, two in NSW and Victoria respectively at this time,” they said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
“All cases have been or are being managed in hotel quarantine and the variant has not spread into the community.
“Australia has a world-class system for genetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 to be able to detect occurrence of this variant. “
HOLIDAYS ON HOLD TO KEEP US SAFE
Hundreds of police, including homicide and counter terror detectives, cancelled Christmas plans to guard Victoria from NSW’s growing coronavirus outbreak.
About 700 Victoria Police officers have been deployed to 31 checkpoints along the NSW-Victorian border.
All vehicles — except freight vehicles — will be checked by police and those without a valid permit or who have visited Greater Sydney or the Central Coast will be refused entry to the state.
Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said the operation was crucial in protecting Victoria from another COVID-19 outbreak.
“This is a significant community safety challenge for us. None of us want to go into stage four lockdown again,” he said.
So far 12 people without permits have been turned away at border checkpoints, and three were arrested for burglary and drunk driving matters.
Police from across the force, including specialist officers and cadets, will patrol the borders, with assistance by the SES, CFA and DEWLP.
The Australian Defence Force declined its support, unlike during Victoria’s second wave where troops made up the metropolitan “ring of steel”.
Many police gave up their holidays to guard the Victorian-NSW border, with some required to sleep in tents due to the lack of available accommodation over the busy holiday period.
Mr Nugent said: “Many of them will be sleeping in tents. Many of them will be foregoing Christmas functions, family functions to be down there.”
The top cop conceded policing in Victoria would be impacted by the snap border enforcement operation. However he said was confident there would be no compromise to public safety.
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