Students and teachers among newly infected patients in Victoria, new cases linked to MCG

Two school students and four teachers are among the 19 new Covid-19 cases identified on Saturday, with more cases linked to the MCG.

Two school students and four teachers have been identified among a spike in new Covid-19 cases in Victoria.

The state recorded 19 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases on Saturday as the number of public exposure sites ballooned to more than 160 overnight.

The state’s health department confirmed all were linked to current outbreaks.

Victoria now has 43 cases linked to the two incursions that jumped the border from Sydney’s deadly Delta outbreak.

The health department said all of the new cases on Saturday were also linked to known outbreaks, which have spawned from a team of Sydney removalists who transited through the state and a family that returned to Melbourne’s north from a NSW red zone.

New Covid-19 cases have been linked to the MCG exposure site. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Health Minister Martin Foley said 18 of the new cases were in the community during their infectious period.

He said about 10,000 primary close contacts have so far been identified and urged everyone to continually check the health department website for more exposure sites.

“There has been an average of less than two infectious days in the community, and that measure is really important because it shows the value of going hard and going early to make sure that we get our arms around this as quickly as possible,” Mr Foley said.

“This lockdown was needed.”

He announced that an additional case was linked to an infected person who attended Level 2 of the MCG Members Reserve during the Carlton-Geelong match last Saturday.

Two of the man’s friends have also tested positive and they recently travelled to Philip Island where multiple new exposures sites have been identified.

Two colleagues and a close contact of the Trinity Grammar schoolteacher who attended the MCG have been identified as new cases while another student at the St Patrick’s Primary School in Murrumbeena has become infected.

There are now nine positive cases connected to the Bacchus Marsh Grammar School after two staff members and one student were also infected with the virus.

An infected person attended Ms Frankie’s restaurant in Cremorne and transmitted the virus to three other people, including one staff member and another patron sitting nearby.

Some of the new case are connected to Young & Jackson, which is listed as a tier 1 exposure site. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Paul Jeffers

An additional four household contacts linked to Young & Jackson had also turned positive, being the man’s wife, his daughters and one of their partners.

There was also one positive household contact connected to Coles Craigieburn.

There was no change to the number of people infected from the Aerial Apartments as all 131 residents of the complex are quarantining.

Mr Foley said testing numbers have been “very high” with more than 47,000 people presenting on Friday.

“It is the most important thing we can do in a low vaccination environment to make sure we give our public health team all the tools and support they need,” he said.

Chief health officer Brett Sutton told reporters household contacts of people who visited a tier 1 exposure site also need to isolate for two weeks as part of the multiple rings of contact tracing.

As of 11.59pm on Friday night, freight drivers entering the state are now required to test every three days.