Melbourne school virus clusters grow as easing of lockdown could be held back

Premier Daniel Andrews may be forced to delay the easing of lockdown after COVID-19 cases linked to schools grow.

Premier Daniel Andrews has dropped a worrying hint the government could hold back on easing some lockdown restrictions as a coronavirus cluster linked to a Melbourne school grows.

There were seven new infections and no further deaths on Saturday, but there are four more cases linked to the East Preston Islamic College and more schools have shut.

“I just want to caution people from, if you like, banking that tomorrow I’m making a whole series of detailed announcements about opening up,” the Premier said.

“We do hope to get to that point, but with so many thousands of tests that are still being processed, we need to see the results of those tests. Again, I stress numbers are not always the most accurate guide.”

Mr Andrews was adamant more infections would emerge across Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

“Almost certainly we will get more cases out of these separate outbreaks. The key point will be tomorrow and Monday and throughout the week, are they linked?” he said.

“Are they cases that can be, if you like, linked. If they’re not, if there are no linkages, if they’re not linked in any way, that speaks to the fact that there may be more virus in that northern part of the city than we would be comfortable with.”

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was expected to announce further easing of restrictions on Sunday. Picture: Andrew Henshaw/NCA NewsWire

A child at Croxton School tested positive, with the school now shut and all families connected to the school in Northcote asked to get tested immediately.

Department of Health and Human Services testing commander Jeroen Weinmar said 34 close contacts had been identified as a result of the child attending the school while infectious.

“We believe there are connections that we are still narrowing down between those cases,” he said.

“The real evidence will be in the testing results we have over the next few days. It is so important for us to have good, strong, detailed testing results.”

DHHS testing commander Jeroen Weinmar says 34 close contacts have been identified at a new school in Melbourne’s north. Picture: Andrew Henshaw/NCA NewsWire

The positive case at Croxton School is part of a family of four, in which all members have tested positive, but it is not connected to the cluster at East Preston Islamic College.

“We’ve identified 34 close contacts of this one child who he may have come into contact with at Croxton School. We’re working through those. We will test those close contacts and work with any secondary contact and will continue to support them in that way,” Mr Weinmar said.

Mr Andrews had previously announced “significant steps” would be taken on Sunday, as Melbourne’s 14-day virus average fell throughout the week and down to five on Saturday.