16 new cases; Mildura, regional Victoria on high alert after footy fan tests positive
A visitor to St Vincent’s Hospital in Fitzroy has sparked multiple exposure sites, a girl from a private school in Kew has tested positive and Premier Daniel Andrews says the state’s lockdown would go on “for as long as it’s needed”.
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New exposure sites inside a St Vincent’s Hospital building in Fitzroy have sparked health fears for vulnerable patients and staff.
Courtyard 55 Cafe, Co Ba Cafe, HealthSmart Pharmacy and Eastern Hill Lotto have been listed as Tier 2 exposure sites at different times in the afternoon on July 16.
The four businesses are all located inside St Vincent’s Hospital near the Victoria Parade entrance.
A St Vincent’s Hospital spokesperson said no staff had tested positive, and the sites were believed to have been caused by a visitor passing through the area while infectious.
Restrictions were tightened at the hospital on July 16, barring all visitors without a special exemption.
A V/Line worker who visited one of the West Gate Tunnel Project’s sites has tested positive to Covid-19.
A West Gate Tunnel Project spokesman confirmed the worker received advice from the Department of Health that he was a close contact of a positive case on Thursday July 15.
They received a positive Covid-19 result a day later on Friday July 16.
The Department of Health has determined there are 36 tier 1 close contact exposures and 31 tier 2 exposures at the worksite.
Following advice from the Department of Health, all tier 1 exposures are isolating for 14 days, while Tier 2 exposures may return to work following a negative test result.
“The site has been reopened after undergoing a deep clean over the weekend,” the spokesman said.
“The construction sector is currently considered an essential service and we are working closely with industry partners, unions, employers and workers to protect both their safety and jobs.
“All contact tracing information has been extracted from the West Gate Tunnel Project’s QR code system and supplied to the Department of Health to help with contact tracing.
“The Major Transport Infrastructure Authority has strict COVID-safe plans in place across project sites to protect both our workers and the community from the spread of coronavirus.”
Project sites have strict rules in place around physical distancing, wearing masks, QR check in codes and increased industrial cleaning. There are measures in place to make sure workers and sites are complying with the strict new health regulations.
The current lockdown has had no impact on projects.
RUYTON STUDENT TESTS POSITIVE, CLASSMATES IN ISOLATION
The Trinity Grammar cluster has officially spread to another Kew private school after a senior student from Ruyton Girls’ School tested positive on Monday. Rehearsals last Wednesday of Strictly Ballroom, a student musical between the two schools, have also been identified as a tier 1 exposure location.
As a consequence, the entire senior school at Ruyton has been declared a covid exposure site.
Principal Linda Douglas told parents around 8.30pm on Monday that all year seven to 12 students and staff who work in the senior school and were at school last Thursday are now classified as primary close contacts and must get tested and isolate for 14 days. Their family members must also isolate for this length of time and may only be released when their daughter tests positive on day 13 – Wednesday 28 July.
Ms Douglas told parents that “this means anyone who has shared face-to-face contact or an enclosed space with a Ruyton Senior School student or staff member since Thursday 15 July is now a SCC”. These contacts must get tested and stay home until they receive clearance from the Department of Health.
NEW LOCAL CASES
Victoria has recorded 16 new local cases as the Delta outbreak stretched to the far northwest on the weekend.
One of those cases was isolating throughout their infectious period.
15,800 primary close contacts are in quarantine.
More than 3000 of those 15,800 cases in quarantine are linked to the MCG.
The state has 81 active cases in total.
It comes on the back of a bumper testing day, with nearly 55,000 results received on Sunday.
More than 250 exposure sites are connected to the current outbreak, stretching from Phillip Island to the Mallee.
The latest cases are:
• A household contact of the Mildura case
• Four more infections linked to Ms Frankie restaurant in Cremorne
• Two infections linked to Trinity Grammar
• One social contact of the Phillip Island case
• One infection linked to Young and Jackson
• One infection linked to AAMI Park
• A case linked to Bacchus Marsh Grammar
• A case linked to the Euro 2020 finals event at The Crafty Squire
Four new local cases were revealed as the Premier addressed the media on Monday and will be counted in Tuesday’s numbers.
All four cases have been in isolation while infectious.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said The Crafty Squire case was raising concern.
“It is absolutely an example of how quickly this variant is moving in the short time we are seeing between exposure and then being infectious and onward transmission.”
Anyone who was at the venue during the exposure period must immediately quarantine for 14 days and get tested.
1800 close contacts have emerged from AAMI Park — half of those have been tested and results have come back.
From Trinity Grammar, 2300 close contacts have emerged and 57 per cent of those results have been returned.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar has 2700 close contacts and authorities have received about 70 per cent of those results.
From Ms Frankie restaurant in Richmond, 540 close contacts have emerged and 63 per cent of those results have been returned.
Anyone who attended level two of the MCC members reserve during the Carlton-Geelong game on July 10 has been urged to get a second test.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said: “If you were on level two of the members’ reserve at any stage and have already had a test, I am requesting that you obtain a second test when possible, following your first test.
“That reflects the upgraded risk and (is) out of an abundance of caution.”
FIFTH NSW COVID DEATH LINKED TO REMOVALISTS
A Covid-positive woman understood to be the relative of twin removalists charged for allegedly working while infectious with the virus has been found dead in a home in Sydney’s southwest.
NSW Police said in a statement officers responded to a concern for welfare at a home on Thursday Place, Green Valley, at 9.15am on Monday.
Inside they found the body of a woman, in her 50s, and the cause of her death is being investigated.
It has been confirmed she had contracted the virus.
It comes as NSW recorded 98 new local coronavirus infections. Out of those, 20 had been infectious in the community.
Read the full story here
VICTORIANS IN LOCKDOWN LIMBO
Victorians will be confined to their homes for several more days, with the state’s snap lockdown to extend until at least Friday and potentially next Wednesday.
Health chiefs and senior ministers will make the final call on the length of the extension within 24 hours, with some wanting to leave the decision until as late as possible and others arguing businesses and schools needed early warning.
Premier Daniel Andrews said authorities would be guided by Monday’s data.
“I know this is not the news that people want to hear,” Mr Andrews said.
“This lockdown will be on for as long as it’s needed. It will be on for as long as needed. Not a moment longer.
(This virus) is so challenging, it’s so dynamic — we have to be on our guard.
“(If we had have been opened) we would be just like Sydney (and) we wouldn’t be looking at a short lockdown, we’d be looking at something entirely different,” Mr Andrews added.
“What we know with Delta is an hour is like a day and day is like a week in some ways, it is moving so fast,” he said.
“If it is smouldering then it will run again, it will take off again — that is the great challenge that we face now and the challenge we will face in the days ahead.”
The Premier said he could not advise on the rules or timeframe that would apply to the lockdown.
“The Chief Health Officer will provide advice to me and my senior colleagues that will occur over tomorrow night,” he said.
“We have no mysteries — that’s a good thing — but we have far too many out in the community for a portion of their infectious period, if not all of it, and we have to drive that right down.
“That is not dissimilar to New South Wales.”
He also confirmed he had no announcement on toughening the border but said he was “actively” looking at further changes.
Mr Andrews has added that it’s “simply not possible” to release regional communities as earlier flagged.
“I don’t want a situation, where for the sake of being popular for a short period of time, you let it (the virus) run in a regional community,” he said.
CAPP CALLS FOR RETURN OF JOBKEEPER
Lord Mayor Sally Capp has called on the federal and state governments to provide more support to businesses devastated by lockdowns.
Ms Capp said the Morrison government should reinstate JobKeeper so that business owners and staff could survive while the vaccination rollout was accelerated.
“National Cabinet must urgently agree on how many people need to be vaccinated before the lockdowns stop. This will provide certainty and confidence to business that there is an end date for the devastating lockdowns, state border closures and crippling uncertainty,” she said.
“The overwhelming feedback from small business is that the uncertainty is hurting just as much as the lockdowns.”
The Lord Mayor said the Andrews government needed to significantly increase the amount of direct financial support for businesses hit by the latest lockdown.
“The economic and social outcomes will be much better if we can keep small businesses afloat now rather than try to start again when we can open,” she said.
Ms Capp said current processes to access small business support at both levels of government were confusing and created unnecessary red tape.
SECOND CASE EMERGES IN MILDURA
On Monday, Mildura recorded a second active Covid case as thousands lined up to get tested.
The second case was revealed on Monday morning in an update to numbers published on the Department of Health website.
It came after a Mildura man aged in his 30s tested positive on Sunday, marking the first coronavirus case in Mildura since last March.
The man was infected with Covid-19 while seated in the MCC Members’ Reserve at the Carlton-Geelong clash on July 10.
But he only tested positive early on Sunday after returning to Mildura – which has been Covid-free for more than a year — sending authorities scrambling to retrace where he had been in the eight days since the game.
A number of Mildura venues, including a supermarket, an aquatic and leisure centre, and the city’s visitor centre are among the new sites of concern.
Three cafes — Caffeine Extraction, Yo Yo Joe’s and Kaffenio — were also listed as Tier 1 exposure sites, with anyone there at the same time as positive cases told to quarantine for 14 days.
Mildura Central Shopping Centre, between 9am-11am last Tuesday, was listed as Tier 2.
And the first coronavirus exposure sites were detected in central Victoria on Sunday, raising the likelihood that lockdown would not be lifted early in regional parts of the state.
The two new Tier 1 sites include two venues in Maddingley, a petrol station in Ravenswood and a bakery in Wycheproof.
There are now more than 15 exposure sites across regional Victoria.
Mildura Mayor Jason Modica said residents had been “put back on our heels because we have been isolated geographically (from the virus) over the last 15 months”.
“We didn’t think it was going to come and now that it’s here we have to respond the best way we can,” Mr Modica told the Herald Sun.
“We will be doing as much as we can to stop the distribution of the virus.”
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said the Mildura infection more than 540km from Melbourne was “concerning”.
And Premier Daniel Andrews warned “it just goes to confirm the point that a problem anywhere is a problem everywhere”.
“If there’s a problem in Melbourne then there’s every reason to believe that we have to have a very conservative approach to parts of regional Victoria,” he said.
Seventeen new infections – 13 linked to the outbreak caused by rogue NSW removalists, and four to a Victorian family who returned from NSW – were identified on Sunday, including the Mildura man, who will be included in Monday’s number.
They include a staff member and four patrons at Ms Frankie restaurant in Cremorne; a student, worker and household contact linked to Trinity Grammar; two cases at the Wallabies-France rugby match at AAMI Park; an existing close contact of the group of friends who went to Phillip Island; and a Bacchus Marsh Grammar teacher.
Covid commander Jeroen Weimar said health authorities were particularly concerned about four exposure sites: the MCG, now linked to six cases; AAMI Park (three cases); Ms Frankie (eight cases); and Young and Jackson hotel (six cases).
The Health Department on Sunday told footy fans deemed Tier 2 contacts after attending the Cats and Blues match to get “retested for coronavirus immediately”.
“This includes if you have already completed testing and returned a negative result,” the department’s alert said.
“You are not required to isolate until you receive a negative result, unless you have symptoms.”
EXPOSURE LIST SOARS PAST 200 SITES
As cases rose again on Sunday, the number of exposure sites also soared past 220 – up from 160 the previous day.
Hampering efforts to have Victorians regularly check the list of exposure sites, the Health Department website crashed twice on Sunday, telling people to “please try again later”.
Tram passengers are on high alert after six popular routes were identified as Covid-19 exposure sites.
They include trams on routes 48, 72, 75 and 109 after an infected commuter travelled on July 14 and 15.
Parts of AAMI Park, which hosted the Wallabies-France game on Tuesday, were upgraded to a Tier 1 site after an infected supporter attended.
Fans seated in sections 22, 23 and 24 must now get tested and quarantine for 14 days.
Authorities are also worried soccer fans could have been exposed to the virus at a screening of the Euros 2020 final at the Crafty Squire pub on Russell St last Monday.
An infected fan was one of 400 people who packed out the venue for England’s penalty shootout loss to Italy.
Footage of the event shows fans huddled in the pub, jumping and singing together.
No new cases have been linked to the event but Professor Sutton pleaded with attendees to get tested and quarantine for 14 days.
“There will have been people there for a prolonged period of time,” he said.
“If they were eating and drinking, then masks will have been off.
“I’m sure that there will have been shouting – or for the English, crying – so (there is) risk of transmission by virtue of that.”
Mr Weimar said some fans bought tickets for their friends which could cause problems for contact tracers if QR code check-ins were ignored.
JABBED PERFORMERS A CLASS ACT
Victoria’s arts community is encouraging everyone to play their role in pandemic recovery.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has joined forces with some of Melbourne’s leading arts organisations to deliver a new video campaign which heralds getting vaccinated as “the performance of a lifetime”.
Featuring an array of Melbourne-based performers who want to “close the curtain on Covid”, the video is based on health advice that mass vaccination is essential to avoiding further lockdowns and venue caps that have devastated the Victorian arts industry.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra managing director Sophie Galaise said vaccinations would help the arts sector get back on their feet.
“Along with our colleagues in the arts community, we are encouraging our audiences and the wider community to get vaccinated so we can all get back to doing what we love,” Ms Galaise said.
Opera singer Belinda Paterson, drag queen Miss Jay and MSO concertmaster and Australian String Quartet violinist Dale Barltrop were among the line-up of artists who took part in the campaign.
“When people get the vaccine, it keeps us in business, it keeps the theatres open and the MSO playing,” Ms Paterson said.
Creative Industries Minister Danny Pearson described it as “a clever and creative way of encouraging audiences to play their role and get vaccinated”.
“The sooner we get vaccinated, the sooner we get back to doing the things we love,” he said.
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