Rolling coverage: Melbourne lockdown talks loom as coronavirus cases rise by six
Footy fans are on alert after a positive case attended the clash between Essendon and North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium. Meanwhile, authorities are locked in emergency talks about a five-day shutdown.
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This story is from Wednesday, May 26. For live updates on Covid cases in Victoria, exposure sites and a possible Melbourne lockdown, follow Thursday’s rolling coverage here.
The department of health have confirmed a positive case attended the Essendon/North Melbourne game at Marvel Stadium on Sunday May 23.
Individuals sitting on Level 1 between Aisles 5 and 28 or Level 3 in between Aisles 6 and 29 must get tested and stay isolated until they have received a negative result
In a statement, the Department said: “the Department is working with the AFL and Marvel stadium to contact spectators to provide this advice.
“Some individuals with the closest contact to the positive case will be directly provided more specific advice from the Department of Health.
“Others attending the stadium not located in these areas will be advised to check for symptoms and be tested if any develop.”
It comes as authorities are locked in emergency talks as they debate putting Melbourne back into lockdown.
The Herald Sun understands they are considering a five day circuit breaker, which could be extended if significant numbers of cases not directly linked to the existing cluster emerge.
But at this point the decision could go either way, sources say.
Premier Daniel Andrews is monitoring the situation closely.
Authorities are comforted that all 15 current cases are closely linked.
But there is rising concern about the growing list of exposure sites and the type of venues involved, including bars, nightclubs and the MCG.
The Herald Sun understands one group of five women out at Somewhere Bar were ushered in at about 11.30pm without having to check-in.
A source close to the government said that did not surprise them and other similar stories were emerging.
The next 24 hours will be “critical” as health authorities weigh up a lockdown after six new cases of Covid-19 were announced.
A total of 10 new local infections uncovered on Tuesday, while a 15th case linked to the northern suburbs outbreak emerged on Wednesday morning.
Acting Premier James Merlino on Wednesday said he was unable to rule out a lockdown.
“I cannot rule out taking some further action, but we will update people as soon as we know. It’s fair to say the next 24 hours will be fairly critical,” he said.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said newly reinstated restrictions would be under review on Wednesday, despite the ink barely dry on rules that returned at 6pm Tuesday.
“We review everything every day. As the acting Premier said, the next 24 hours will tell us if we have more primary contacts. Only 80 have returned results so far, of about 300. The rest will come through today,” he said.
“The exposure sites that they then generate, help many close contacts they might have and how long they have been in the community — they are all factors we need to consider.”
The latest infections bring the state’s active caseload to 24 after six cases were announced on Tuesday morning.
Mr Merlino said all cases in the cluster so far were linked but health authorities were alarmed by the sites where thousands could have been exposed.
“These cases are linked and that is a good thing but we are very concerned by the number and by the kind of exposure sites,” he said.
The state government on Tuesday announced private home gatherings would be reduced to just five visitors a day, while public gatherings will be slashed to 30 people.
While crowds have been given the green light for this weekend’s AFL matches and other events, Prof Sutton warned that the situation could evolve rapidly.
“Everything is on the table in the review for restrictions, including public events,” he said.
SNAP LOCKDOWN NOT RULED OUT: MERLINO
Acting Premier James Merlino has refused to rule out another snap lockdown, saying the government will be guided by public health advice.
Opposition leader Michael O’Brien on Wednesday sought a government guarantee that regional Victoria would not be locked down again as a result of the current outbreak.
Mr Merlino told parliament he would be guided by health advice, but refused to detail what would trigger another lockdown.
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do, and what we won’t do,” Mr Merlino said.
“What we will do is follow the advice of our public health experts. And I’ll tell you what we won’t is listen to any advice, any commentary, from those opposite because...if we followed the advice, we would still be in lockdown.”
The commentary comes as some Melbourne supermarket shelves lay bare in scenes reminiscent of the beginning of the pandemic.
A shopper at Coles in Elsternwick snapped the store’s toilet paper aisle near empty as the city grapples with its latest coronavirus outbreak.
Mr Merlino said the next 24 hours would be critical in determining any potential further restrictions.
He said authorities were concerned about the high number of active cases, 15, and the types of exposure sites so far identified.
“If everyone who is linked to an exposure site follows the advice of our public health experts, and if we keep following the train of transmission, then we can run this down,” he said.
Mr Merlino also defended Victoria’s contact tracing efforts, despite admitting that some businesses were alerting customers that they were an exposure site hours before being officially listed on the government’s official list.
In February the government imposed stage four restrictions across the state after 19 active cases were recorded.
There were fears hundreds of travellers could have come into contact with an infected worker at a Melbourne Airport cafe.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA SLAMS BORDER SHUT TO MELBOURNE
South Australia has taken precaution to keep Covid-19 out of its community by slamming its borders shut to Greater Melbourne.
Premier Steven Marshall announced on Wednesday afternoon that restrictions will come into effect as of 6pm tonight.
It means anyone from Greater Melbourne will not be permitted to enter the state after that time. Only those with exemptions or essential workers will be given the green light but must quarantine for 14 days.
South Australian residents will also be allowed to return home after the 6pm cut off but must quarantine at home for two weeks.
Those people already in the state who returned from Greater Melbourne from May 20 must get tested on days one, 5 and 13 and need to isolate until they receive a negative result.
Mr Marshall also advised people travelling from the Bendigo LGA can enter SA but must have a test on day one, 5 and 13 until a negative result.
More details here.
HOW VIRUS ESCAPED SA QUARATINE
South Australian health authorities have claimed there was “no single conclusive cause” that led to a Victorian man contracting COVID-19 while isolating in one of it medi-hotels.
SA Health released its Potential Intra-Medi-hotel Transmission report on Wednesday afternoon which stated there were no high-risk events or breaches in prevention or control practises that could have led to the spread.
Instead, it found airborne transmission was the “likely” cause because of the timing of doors opening and closing between adjacent rooms.
“A review of the timing and placement of food/goods/waste/linen outside of guest’s rooms is likely to reduce the risk of further episodes of similar transmission events,” the report read.
“In addition, careful management and placement of guests at higher risk of developing COVID-19 (eg. close contacts) will also likely assist.”
The Melbourne man isolated at the Playford Hotel in Adelaide’s CBD after returning from India on April 19.
But four days after leaving SA and returning home to Melbourne on May 4, he developed Covid-19 symptoms and tested positive to the virus.
Genomic testing later showed that it matched another infected man who was a guest in the same hotel in the adjacent room.
Read the full story.
THOUSANDS EXPOSED AT FOOTY MATCHES
The MCG has become a virus flashpoint with a Covid-19 positive case confirmed late on Tuesday night to have attended the Collingwood and Port Adelaide clash on Sunday, May 23.
Fans seated in Zone 4, Level 1, of the Great Southern Stand must get tested and isolate until they return a negative result.
The health department said it would scour CCTV to further determine exposure sites at the ground, which hosted around 23,000 spectators.
This comes as contact tracers are desperately hunting down a mystery link to the growing coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne’s northern suburbs that has the state on high alert.
On Tuesday night, the Department of Health issued a warning after it was uncovered a positive case attended the AFL match between Collingwood and Port Adelaide at the MCG on Sunday.
Health authorities are working with the AFL to contact ticket holders who were seated in zone four of level one of the ground’s Great Southern Stand.
People who were sitting in those seats, located between M1 and M16 printed on their ticket will be told to get tested and isolate themselves immediately.
Footy fans who were sitting in other areas within the ground could also be told to get tested if CCTV footage uncovered any other potential exposure areas.
The statement said the closest contact to this newest positive case will be contacted directly.
The AFL and MCC will assist DHHS in their contact tracing efforts by providing information collected through QR codes and ticketing systems.
Stay safe.
— Collingwood FC (@CollingwoodFC) May 25, 2021
Get tested. https://t.co/5MrpMYykm5
Meanwhile, Moonee Valley Football Club has also recorded a positive case among its playing ranks.
Anyone who attended the changerooms or club rooms at its home ground at Ormond Park in Moonee Ponds on Saturday, May 22 has been urged to isolate and get tested immediately.
The club also held a ”Ladies Day” event in the afternoon.
One of the club’s players was a work colleague of a positive case.
Moonee Valley Football Club is part of the Essendon District Football League.
A busy Brunswick shopping precinct has also been identified as an exposure site, according to centre management.
Barkly Square management posted a statement on their website indicating the centre, on Barkly St near Sydney Rd, was a Tier 2 site.
“Barkly Square Centre Management has received notification the centre has been listed as a Tier 2 COVID-19 public exposure site by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. We have been advised the affected individual was present at the centre on Saturday, 22 May between 1:15pm and 2:30pm. The individual is understood to have attended the following retailers: Priceline Pharmacy, OPSM, Kmart and Woolworths. As a result, the impacted retailers have notified all staff members who have been in close contact with the individual to isolate for 14 days, and a comprehensive deep clean of their tenancies will now be undertaken.
However, the popular shopping square is yet to be listed on the Department of Health’s exposure site list, despite the centre’s Kmart displaying a notice outside the shop at least several hours ago.
CAFE OWNER ‘FOUND OUT ABOUT EXPOSURE LISTING FROM CUSTOMER’
A Melbourne cafe owner has blown up over his business being listed as a coronavirus exposure site without any prior warning from health authorities.
Port Park Cafe owner Charlie Nasr said he was open for more than an hour on Wednesday before he found out from a customer that a person with Covid-19 had visited the Port Melbourne venue.
The positive case visited on Monday, May 24, between 12.30pm and 1pm.
“A customer said, ‘You’re listed as one of the exposure sites’,” he told 3AW on Wednesday.
Mr Nasr said it wasn’t until 8am that he received communication from a health official.
Read the full version of this story, here.
Meanwhile, a Mornington Peninsula cafe has also warned patrons to get tested after the Health Department confirmed a positive case had attended the venue on May 22.
In a statement posted to their Instagram page, Nordie Cafe in Red Hill advised its dine-in and takeaway customers to get tested if they had visited the cafe between 9am and 10am.
“If you were at 1008 Mornington Flinders Road, Red Hill at this time then it is essential that you get a COVID test and follow instructions from DHHS,” the statement read.
“Staff safety remains our primary concern, and those working on Saturday are all currently seeking a test or self-isolating at home with their families.”
“We have been so grateful for the community support over the last year, and pray that this passing visit is as far as it goes.”
The cafe will on Thursday undergo a deep clean and await instructions from DHHS before reopening.
Nordie Cafe has not yet been listed by the Health Department on its list of exposure sites.
A Department of Health spokesman could not confirm whether the cafe was classified as a tier one or tier two exposure site.
OVER-50S INFECTED IN NEW CLUSTER NOT VACCINATED
Three Victorians aged over 50 at the centre of the state’s latest coronavirus outbreak hadn’t been vaccinated despite being eligible, increasing pressure on the federal government over its flagging jabs rollout.
The Herald Sun can also reveal that even a doctor who made a house call to another infected person hadn’t received the vaccine, and must now get tested and isolate.
Epidemiologists said the outbreak should be the “kick in the pants” people needed to get vaccinated, as Victoria criticised the federal government over its failure to vaccinate disability care residents – some of the state’s most vulnerable.
Read the full exclusive story here.
Meanwhile, the vaccination hub at Melbourne Convention Centre saw dozens of people queue up for their walk-in jab on Wednesday morning.
A worker from the convention centre said lines were much bigger than Tuesday.
“Yesterday morning there were only three people lined up when we opened,” he said.
“Now you can see how busy it is.”
“I was going to get it anyway,” said Nicole Jarry, 56.
“But the latest outbreak has prompted me to take the morning off and come here.”
Ms Jarry said she had no reservations about the vaccine but wanted to “wait a couple of weeks” when it first became available.
Long queues also snaked around the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton as people waited for their walk-in or appointment jab.
Despite the line one worker said waiting time was “less than an hour”.
“I had to get it at some point,” Yin Chan said.
Ms Chan said she had some concerns about the vaccine but had changed her mind due to the latest outbreak.
“My husband had it and he seemed okay, so I thought why not?” she said.
Another woman, Lisa, said she had “weighed up” the risk of the vaccine and decided it was worth it.
“I get bad asthma so I don’t want to get Covid,” she said.
“This outbreak is really frustrating, if everyone has just continued wearing masks we wouldn’t be here.”
It comes as 15,850 people were vaccinated on Wednesday — the single biggest turnout yet.
BARS ON HIGH ALERT IN RUSH TO CONTACT-TRACE
A number of bars in Melbourne’s inner south are on high alert after an infected case partied on the popular Chapel St strip on the weekend.
The case’s night out began at Prahran bar Three Monkeys on Chapel St between 9.10pm and 11pm on Saturday, May 22, before moving on to Somewhere bar down the road between 10.10pm and 1am Sunday, May 23.
They later returned to Three Monkeys between 12.30am to 2.30am, then went to Circus Bar on South Yarra’s Commercial Rd between 1.30am and 4.15am.
Three Monkeys stated it used the approved Victorian Services QR code contact tracing system, and had provided extensive details to the Department.
Meanwhile, CCTV footage from Highpoint shopping centre was being used to find the most at-risk shops.
Contact tracers determined a positive case entered Ishka, Kidstuff, Lush, Smiggle and Toyworld, which remain tier 1 exposure sites, between 5.15pm and 6.35pm on Thursday, May 20. The rest of the Maribyrnong shopping centre has been downgraded to a tier 2.
A CBD restaurant and McDonald’s in Clifton Hill were the latest exposure sites after a case dined at the Bamboo House restaurant on Little Bourke St between 11am and 11.50am on Friday, May 21.
A day later, they ate at the Queens Pde McDonald’s from 6pm to 7pm.
The Department of Health on Tuesday evening revealed 168 primary close contacts related to exposure sites had been identified.
One of the confirmed cases attended Broadmeadows Hospital on May 21. A Northern Health spokeswoman said the hospital remained open with elective surgery continuing as planned, but a section of the hospital was deep cleaned.
Prof Sutton said he was “still concerned” that people travelling on a crowded train from Flinders St to Craigieburn on May 7 could be unknowingly spreading the virus.
He was also forced to defend the latest contact tracing bungle, citing there was “no evidence” linking the latest mistake to the fresh outbreak.
The Victorian government on Monday was forced to admit its contact tracing team “fell down” again after it took almost two weeks to realise it listed the wrong Woolworths as an exposure site.
FOOTY CROWDS GOING AHEAD DESPITE OUTBREAK
Footy crowds are set to go ahead amid Melbourne’s growing Covid outbreak.
Sport Minister Martin Pakula on Wednesday morning confirmed the AFL would push ahead with crowds but it is not yet fully known if crowds will be reduced.
The AFL is expected to release a statement before lunchtime Wednesday.
“There will be some conditions around mask-wearing, there will be some issues about the roof at Marvel,” he said.
“The AFL is considering some of those options as we speak.”
Health Minister Martin Foley also flagged changed at Wednesday morning’s press conference.
“The AFL is going ahead with crowds, subject to changes and masks, but there has been great engagement between the league, stadiums and public health team,” he said.
Follow latest footy updates here.
BALLARAT RESULT STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION
A returned traveller is isolating in Ballarat after returning a suspect coronavirus test.
The man presented to Ballarat Health Services overnight and his result was on Wednesday afternoon still under investigation.
“Initial investigations suggest that this may be an historic case,’’ Ballarat Health Services said in a statement.
“Further testing is being carried out. Out of an abundance of caution, the individual and their close contacts are isolating, as are staff who were directly in contact with them.
“All due processes have been followed with staff and the individual.”
Authorities initially had difficulty getting back in touch with the man, with police helping find him.
But they stress he did nothing wrong.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said: “Ballarat police assisted the Ballarat Health Service to track down a man this morning after it was determined his COVID-19 test result needed further investigation.”
“The man was located quickly and is currently self-isolating,’’ she said.
LONG QUEUES AT TESTING SITES AGAIN
Testing sites across Melbourne are in for another busy day with wait times ballooning to two hours on Wednesday morning.
Northern Hospital in Epping saw cars lined up along Cooper St by 8am with wait times of “about two hours” according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Testing was temporarily suspended on Tuesday after reaching capacity by 9.30am.
The drive-through testing site at La Trobe University’s Bundoora campus saw similar scenes with bumper to bumper traffic backed along Ring Road.
Long waits are also expected at test sites at Victoria University in St Albans and Melbourne showgrounds.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT COVID CASES
Earlier on Tuesday, five new cases of the Indian variant emerged on Tuesday, bringing the cluster’s total to nine, including a man in his 60s who is thought to have been the earliest known infection.
That man, dubbed case 5, had been infectious while out in the public for almost 10 days before he was identified as the likely transmitter to case 1 during a business meeting on May 18.
Case 1 went on to infect three close family contacts — a man in his 70s, a woman in her 70s and a preschool-aged child, while case 5 infected four relatives.
Although genomic sequencing had linked the latest positive cases to a Wollert man, who caught the virus in South Australian hotel quarantine, chief health officer Brett Sutton said it was unknown exactly how the virus was transmitted.
“It may be the missing link. His initial recollections don’t overlap with any of the Wollert case’s exposure sites, so there’s no definitive link to that case, even though we know there’s a genomic link,” Prof Sutton said.
“There may still be another intermediary. We need to explore that.”
On Wednesday, it emerged that cases 10, 11, and 12 were workplace close primary contacts of case nine.
The workplace is a finance firm located in Port Melbourne. Case 13 is another contact of case one, while cases 14 and 15 are workplace contacts of case nine.
Health officials are particularly alarmed because the virus circulating in the cluster is the Indian variant.
“It’s by no means one to be complacent about … It is at least as infectious as the so-called UK variant,” Prof Sutton said.
“It’s been called the double-mutant variant, in fact it’s got 15 mutations, two of which are a concern that relate to transmissibility.”
STATES IMPOSE RESTRICTIONS ON VICTORIANS
Western Australia is tightening its restrictions on travellers from Victoria but has stopped short of slamming its border shut after more cases of coronavirus were detected in the eastern state.
From 6pm on Tuesday, all Victorian arrivals to Western Australia must be tested straight away, or within 48 hours, and self-quarantine until they return a negative result.
“I hope this additional testing regimen is all we have to do … (but) we won’t hesitate to put in place additional border controls if that is what the health advice recommends,” Premier Mark McGowan said on Tuesday.
It comes as Queensland has also declared the City of Whittlesea local government area – where the outbreak in Melbourne is centred – a hotspot.
From 1am Wednesday, anyone arriving into Queensland from that area must go into hotel quarantine unless they have a valid exemption.
All arrivals from Victoria into Queensland must complete a border pass from Thursday at 1am.
Then, those arrivals who had been to the Whittlesea LGA since May 11 and are not a local resident will not be permitted to enter unless an exemption is granted.
If that is the case, those with permission to enter the state must complete two weeks of isolation in a medi-hotel, regardless if they are a local resident or not.
It was announced on Monday that anyone who attended a declared venue of concern listed on the Victorian Health website would be placed into hotel quarantine, as of 1am on Wednesday.
Anyone who has been to Greater Melbourne on or after May 11 will not be allowed to go into the state’s prisons, aged care facilities, disability accommodation services and hospitals as of 1am Wednesday.
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