Victoria records 11 more coronavirus cases as lockdown continues
Victoria is grappling with new covid cases and thousands of close contacts, with fears growing the state’s “circuit-breaker” lockdown could be extended.
Victoria is now grappling with 11 cases of coronavirus from the past 24 hours, with hopes the state’s lockdown could still end at midnight on Thursday seeming less and less likely.
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino said the state had recorded another six cases today, after the midnight cut-off and health authorities were “urgently” investigating them.
Mr Merlino said the situation in the state was “incredibly serious” and it was likely the outbreak “may well get worse before it gets better”.
“In the past 24 hours we identified many more points of concern. In addition to the very worrying cases in private aged care, we are very concerned about the number of other high risk exposure sites,” he said.
“We are seeing a small number of cases infecting a large number of contacts. There is no doubt, the situation is incredibly serious. The next few days remain critical.”
The state is now dealing with 51 community transmission cases linked to the Melbourne outbreak, with another nine in hotel quarantine.
Today’s 11 cases were detected from a whopping 43,874 tests in the past 24 hours.
More than 4200 Victorians have been identified as primary close contacts and are in isolation. Health authorities urged Victorians to check the growing list of venues of concern, which are listed here.
Reported yesterday: 5 new local cases.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) May 30, 2021
- 16,752 vaccine doses were administered
- 43,874 test results were received
Got symptoms? Get tested.
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco
#COVID19Vic#COVID19VicDatapic.twitter.com/8J2xuCnyB4
Chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton said the state was taking the virus battle “day by day” and admitted an extended lockdown wasn’t off the cards.
“It is concerning numbers and concerning settings. We’ve gone from a single case at the beginning of the month to 4200 primary close contacts. It has been a rapidly moving virus and the transmission that has occurred in those high-risk settings has been very substantial,” Prof Sutton said.
“So we have to take it as a day by day prospect. With more numbers today coming through and those really concerning settings, especially in aged care, we are neck and neck with this virus and it is an absolute beast.
“We don’t know what will unfold over the coming days. We have said that all the way through. We interrogate the data very deeply on a day by day basis.
“We could get very reassuring news over the rest of today but we have had staff come to us in the last 48 hours. It is very concerning and we need to bear that in mind.”
Melbourne’s coronavirus outbreak hits four aged care homes
Melbourne’s coronavirus crisis has now spread to four aged care homes — with Arcare Aged Care Home, in the west Melbourne suburb of Maidstone, now having three cases linked to it.
The home was put in lockdown over the weekend after a worker, a woman aged in her 50s, tested positive to coronavirus late Saturday night.
Arcare today confirmed a second team member and a resident had since tested positive to coronavirus. The woman’s son has also tested positive for coronavirus.
The resident had received one dose of the Pfizer vaccine however the second team member had not received any vaccinations.
The aged care resident is displaying mild symptoms however has been taken to hospital as a precaution.
“Arcare is well prepared for this outbreak and our infection control practices position us well to manage this effectively,” the aged care provider said.
Another of today’s positive coronavirus cases is a worker at an aged care home in Sunshine, the suburb next to Maidstone in Melbourne.
The staff member at BlueCross Western Gardens tested positive late last night and is a close contact of the care worker who tested positive at Arcare.
In a letter to staff, BlueCross’s CEO said 76 per cent of residents had received their first coronavirus vaccine.
Coppin Centre Royal Freemasons aged care home in Melbourne and the Freemason’s aged care home in Footscray, are also in lockdown after its aged care workers were linked to a Covid-positive home.
Kerri Rivett, the chief executive of the aged care provider, said the home had brought in “full outbreak procedures”.
“We have just been notified that clinical staff members at our Coppin Centre and Footscray homes have last week, worked at another aged care provider where a staff member has now tested positive for COVID-19,” she said.
“The potential exposure occurred during work at the other provider and all staff were wearing a mask. Within our homes, staff have also been wearing masks at all times.”
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley was repeatedly questioned about the outbreaks at the private aged care homes — which are regulated by the Commonwealth government, not the state government.
Following devastating outbreaks at Victoria’s public aged care homes, run by the state government, last year, the government put in rules and better pay for workers to ensure they only worked at one centre.
However this was not the case at private, Commonwealth-run aged care facilities.
“I’m the minister for health, I know how the virus reacts and it does not make a distinction between Commonwealth and State facilities, my job is to keep Victorians safe, especially in those high risk settings,” he said.
“I will resist the temptation to be critical of the Commonwealth, I will work cooperatively with them every chance I get to get ahead of it.”
Fears of extended lockdown over aged care cases
Earlier today, health experts admitted the mystery case found at Arcare was extremely “concerning” as contact tracers frantically worked to figure out how the employee caught coronavirus.
A massive health response, including a testing blitz of all staff and resident, was launched on Sunday morning after it was revealed the woman had inadvertently worked for two days while infectious.
Leading infectious diseases expert Professor and Doherty Institute Chair Sharon Lewin said the mystery case in the aged care home was “concerning” but Melburnians should take solace in the fact that she had received one vaccination.
“The mystery case is certainly concerning. (Firstly), it’s a mystery case, so we need to know where this person acquired Covid. And second of all — they work in an aged care home which is the most vulnerable setting for Covid,” Prof Lewin told ABC News Breakfast.
“It’s very reassuring to hear that the worker was vaccinated back on May 13 and that was will definitely have some benefits, meaning that it will reduce, even though this worker became infected, it reduces her chance of passing it on by 50 per cent.”
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Prof Lewin said it was “reassuring” contact tracers continued to link Victoria’s new coronavirus cases — but the aged care mystery case could mean lockdown is extended.
“Thousands and thousands of tests have been done, which is fantastic. And up until this one mystery case, they have all been linked which is also very reassuring,” she said.
“I’m very hopeful that we won’t need to extend the lockdown for much longer should this sort of pattern even continue over coming days.”
Prof Lewin said she wasn’t sure how long the lockdown could be extended for, but Melburnians should have hope it would be nothing like 2020.
“It is important for people to understand (this lockdown) is very different to what we went through in Melbourne last year,” she said.
“The rationale for lockdown last year was to stop transmission and, you know, get effective suppression or what ended up being elimination.
“This is a circuit-breaker, it’s to allow the contact tracers to catch up with all those hundreds and hundreds and thousands of contacts.
“Once that’s happened, we should still be able to continue contact tracing cases while staying open, which is what we have seen other states do.”
Arcare Maidstone was hit by a coronavirus outbreak last year and had 14 infections linked to the home — including seven staff.
“While we hoped that this would not happen again, we are well prepared, and our infection control practices put us in a good place to manage this outbreak effectively,” Arcare chief executive Colin Singh said in a statement.
Health staff were seen at the aged care home doing a deep clean over the weekend and residents were kept in their rooms.
Victoria’s coronavirus testing commander Jeroen Weimar said the mystery aged care case was the state’s top priority.
“It is our most vulnerable and sensitive setting that we have and that is why we have put such an important response into this,” he told reporters yesterday.
“I am concerned that we don’t have, at this point of time, an acquisition source.
“This is the biggest priority for us to understand.”
Speaking to the Herald Sun, University of South Australia chair of epidemiology Adrian Esterman said the next 48 hours for the state were critical.
“There is a very fine balance between things getting in or out of control … If we see more mystery cases on Monday then alarm bells will be ringing,” he said.
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