Worker may have been infected for two weeks before getting tested

A worker’s two week delay in getting a Covid test case may have denied contact tracers a vital clue on the origins of the Whittlesea outbreak.

A worker who did not undergo a Covid-19 test for a fortnight after they were likely infected may have cost contact tracers a crucial chance to stop Victoria’s latest outbreak close to its source.

Contact tracers are now racing to isolate hundreds of people connected to a Slades Beverages worker, who was one of 11 new Covid-19 cases announced on Monday.

But authorities believe the case may have caught the virus as early as May 12, and been circulating while infectious from May 14.

It is not clear whether the worker had symptoms before finally undergoing a test, but the two week delay in identifying the case may have denied investigators a vital clue on the origins of the Whittlesea outbreak.

Four days before Victoria entered lockdown tests revealed a 60-year-old man known as Case 5 had been infected on May 12.

No other cases dated back that far, so there was nobody else for contact tracers to compare his movements to in order to determine where the outbreak had seeded.

Authorities are probing whether a delay in testing could be a missing link. Picture: David Geraghty

Testing commander Jeroen Weimar said the Slades Beverages case was the third instance in the current outbreak of somebody circulating for at least a week while infectious.

“We have identified now three cases where their exposure period goes back over a week, over 10 days, during the point at which the test result came through,” Mr Weimar said. “That means they are out in the community for a long time, they have a larger number of exposure sites, which is a major area of concern for us.”

The Whittlesea outbreak has grown to 51 cases after five cases were confirmed overnight on Sunday, followed by another six positive tests early on Monday.

Contact tracers have now identified at least 279 potential exposure sites.

Of most concern among the latest sites are JMD Grocers & Sweets in Epping, Healthy India supermarket in Reservoir, Inday Filipino Asian Store at Footscray Market and Thai Huy Butcher, Footscray Market.

Chief health officer Brett Sutton said contact tracers had now identified and isolated 4200 primary close contacts who are directly connected to a positive case.

Prof Sutton said the state’s contact tracing team had not been overwhelmed by the growing cluster and were managing to follow up each lead in “absolutely record time” to close off any avenue from which the virus could escape.

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said although Victoria’s contact tracing has improved it remained “far from perfect”.