Thousands of Melbourne public housing tenants locked inside several towers learn their fates

Authorities have confirmed a widespread outbreak of coronavirus inside a public housing tower, with a huge number of people exposed.

A serious outbreak of coronavirus in a public housing tower in Melbourne has potentially exposed a huge number of people, health authorities say.

Nine buildings home to 3000 people across the Victorian capital have been in lockdown since Saturday over suspicions of a COVID-19 cluster.

Extensive testing since then has confirmed the worst fears, with one building at the epicentre of a “substantial” number of confirmed cases.

The tower on Alfred Street in North Melbourne will remain in total lockdown, with residents forbidden from leaving, for another nine days.

“The public health advice is that there are such numbers of positive cases, together with known close contacts, that the assumption has got to be that everybody in that tower is a close contact of someone who is positive,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.

The assessment is that for every positive case in that complex, three or more others are close contacts who have likely been exposed.

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Food and other supplies being delivered to one of the towers on Thursday morning.

Over the past few days, health authorities have conducted 2515 tests across the estates and detected 159 positive cases.

“There are, in essence, three main (infected) groups within those nine towers,” Mr Andrews said.

Two buildings have zero cases and six have a relatively small number of infections, he said.

As a result, the total lockdown of those eight other towers will cease at midnight tonight and residents will then be subject to the stage three measures that apply to the rest of Greater Melbourne.

Stage three provides just four valid reasons for leaving the house – for groceries, for medical care, to provide care, or to go to work to study if it’s not possible from home.

Anyone in the towers who has tested positive or is a close contact of someone who has must remain in quarantine in their individual unit, as per public health orders.

Authorities will maintain a presence across the sites to monitor the ongoing health and welfare of residents.

“Obviously we’ve tested a lot of people over the last five days. But there is still people who are going to be incubating illness,” Chief Medical Officer Professor Brett Sutton said.

“So they haven’t tested positive yet, but in the next couple of days they may well develop symptoms, test positive, and will need to continue to isolate them and quarantine their close contacts.”

There has been a significant police presence at the towers since the weekend. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Professor Sutton confirmed there’s a link between the tower outbreak and the significant Al-Taqwa College outbreak – now Victoria’s largest in terms of numbers after overtaking the Cedar Meats cluster.

“Do we know how it got in? No, we don’t. It is just a link, it might have gone in one direction or the other direction,” he said.

Criticism has been mounting about the Victorian Government’s approach to the mass lockdown of several complexes since it was announced on Saturday, with claims of food donations being withheld and unwell residents going without medication.

Victorian Greens MP Ellen Sandell told NCA NewsWire a mother inside the towers and without any access to ventolin for her diabetic daughter had been forced to reuse needles.

Another mother only saw her newborn baby for the first time on Wednesday night since they were separated when hard lockdown measures came into force on Saturday.

“There’s been no thought and no planning to this hard lockdown – people have been treated like prisoners, and there has been no individual care,” Ms Sandell said.

Emma King, chief executive officer of the Victorian Council of Social Services, told news.com.au earlier this week that the situation resembled “a crime scene”.

“This is a public health issue, but it doesn’t look like it,” Ms King said.

“There’s a very strong police and protective services presence, not just at the estate but in surrounding streets. In a way that’s not normal. It’s pretty confronting.”

The presence of health and community service workers increased on Tuesday in light of a backlash.

RELATED: Locked-down tower residents denied food packages

Some 3000 residents across nine towers have been locked down since Saturday. Picture: David Crosling

Journalist Margaret Simons, who lives near one of the towers, has been sharing running updates and insights about the situation via her Twitter account.

Earlier this afternoon, Simons said a “very difficult issue” had emerged yesterday regarding “a small percentage of residents” who had refused to open the door to authorities.

“People are guessing that one reason may be fear of being penalised for minor issues such as overcrowding,” she wrote.

“I am told minor issues in breach of tenancy leases during the public health crisis will not be pursued, and attempts are being made to communicate that through community. While I don’t have this officially, those who know people who are refusing access may wish to pass this on.”

As several people have just pointed out to me - and as I meant to say - it is also clear that a HUGE effort has been made by health workers to get this testing done, and the results done, ASAP so this can be brought to an end. They too have worked ridiculous hours.

— MargaretSimons (@MargaretSimons) July 8, 2020

The government said 85 per cent of residents across the nine towers had been tested, and the remainder will be approached again.