Daniel Andrews admits source of current outbreak may never be known
Premier Daniel Andrews admitted one thing when asked for an update about how the current outbreak started.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has admitted the state may never figure out the origin of the current Covid outbreaks, as authorities attempt to dampen virus spot fires.
Victoria recorded 11 new locally acquired cases on Monday, with the state’s health department confirming all were linked to existing outbreaks.
Ten of the cases were out in the community while infectious.
Mr Andrews on Monday said authorities may never know the origin of the current outbreaks affecting Melbourne’s western and southwestern suburbs.
“We continue to run and re-run genomics, we’re continuing to interrogate the national database and all those genomic sequences,” Mr Andrews said.
“Sometimes you don’t get an exact match, so we may never know.”
Authorities believe the current outbreak came from Sydney and have confirmed it is the Delta variant.
But what they don’t know is how the strain entered the state, or how it is connected to any previous outbreak.
The government is continuing to run down all active theories and investigating all points of contact, but Mr Andrews said there may not ever be an exact match.
“That’s what’s really concerning, you don’t want to see numbers,” he said.
“What will remain a challenge is (working out) where these two chains of transmission first began, and it’s not for the want of trying.”
The latest lockdown was sparked by two separate outbreaks, with the source of both clusters continuing to be a mystery.
The first cluster began with a Hobson’s Bay couple, in their 20s, who have been deemed “mystery” cases.
One half of the couple is a teacher at Al-Taqwa College in Truganina, which has now been closed down and the school community isolating.
One teacher and 14 students at the college tested positive as a result.
The second cluster concerns the Maribyrnong council area, where a man in his 20s, who works at a warehouse in Derrimut, first tested positive.
Authorities still don’t know where he caught the virus from.
On Friday chief health officer Brett Sutton said it was positive that all cases were linked so far.
“We have seen transmission and in just a few days seen out highest case load since September last year,” Professor Sutton said.
“We know we’re now catching up with this outbreak bit by bit.”
Originally published as Daniel Andrews admits source of current outbreak may never be known
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