Thing that could send Melbourne into lockdown as new COVID cluster emerges

Multiple COVID-19 restrictions have been reinstated for Melbourne, with one expert revealing what could plunge the city back into lockdown.

New restrictions have been brought in across Melbourne following its new COVID-19 cluster, with one expert revealing what it could take to send the city back into a full lockdown.

Victorian officials announced one new COVID-19 case had been detected on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections in the Melbourne cluster to five.

The new case is a man in his 60s and was been identified as a close contact of one of the previous cases.

It comes after four people tested positive to coronavirus in on Monday, including a man in his 30s, a man in his 70s, a woman in her 70s and preschool-aged child.

These cases belong to the same family but are spread across two households in the Whittlesea local government area.

From 6pm tonight a raft of new restrictions will be introduced across Greater Melbourne, including:

• A limit on five people per day for household gatherings

• A limit of 30 people for public gatherings

• Masks will be required indoors for everyone aged 12 and over unless an exemption applies

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People queue up for COVID-19 testing in Melbourne. Picture: William West/AFP

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The decision to introduce restrictions comes after Health Minister Martin Foley said on Monday a decision would be made as more information came to light.

“We’re not ruling further measures in or out and as further information comes to hand the evidence will determine our response,” he said.

Deakin University Chair of Epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett told Sky News previous coronavirus scares have proven lockdowns are not always necessary if contact tracing is fast and effective.

She said if Victoria sees a spike in cases over the next few days then a lockdown may become necessary to help contact tracing efforts.

“It’s only really if you’ve got evidence of unseen or undetected transmission occurring more widely that you might then make the call that you need to give the health department more time to catch up,” Professor Bennett said.

She said it is likely authorities will be able to determine the cause of the outbreak “in the next day or two”.

Race to find ‘missing link’ between cases

Officials are scrambling to find the source of the infection, with health authorities suggesting there could be a “missing link” between this cluster and a previous COVID-19 case.

Earlier in the month a man tested positive to the virus after becoming infected while undergoing hotel quarantine in South Australia and then flying into Melbourne and returning to his home in Wollert.

Genomic testing as found the new infections are “closely linked” to this previous infection, though so far none of the new cases have been linked to any exposure sites from the Wollert case.

“The dates do not line up immediately so we cannot rule out if there is a missing link out there,” Victorian health Minister Martin Foley said.

Epidemiologist and head of the University of Melbourne’s School of Population and Global Health, Professor Nancy Baxter, said being able to find a link between this cluster and the previous infection will go a long way in being able to stop any possible chains of transmission.

“I think that if they find that intermediate person we’ll all breathe a sigh of relief and we’ll understand how this chain of events happened,” she told the ABC.

“If we never find that intermediary I think we’re all going to be very anxious for the next 28 days before we know there’s not going to be any further spread.”

Victorians warned to ‘ready’ themselves

Traces of COVID-19 were last Thursday picked up in wastewater in the Epping and Wollert areas, almost three weeks after the city reported the positive Covid case of the man who became infected in Adelaide hotel quarantine.

Fears Melbourne could be sent back into lockdown spiked yesterday after chief health officer Brett Sutton warned residents “we have to ready ourselves” after revealing the first case in the new cluster was “likely quite infectious”.

The infectious man, who was displaying symptoms on May 20 but was likely infectious as early as May 18, had been out in the community for three days.

Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton announces an outbreak of COVID-19 in Whittlesea, Melbourne. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Ian Currie

“The viral load was high and with close contacts becoming positive, he is likely to be quite infectious,” Professor Sutton said.

“There (was) not a huge number of close contacts but we have to go through the interview process to identify anyone else.

“We have to ready ourselves for any other positives and when there are close contacts who do become positive, that raises the possibility that even a casual contact could become positive as well.”

List of COVID-19 exposure sites grow

Multiple locations have been added to the list of sites visited by confirmed COVID-19 cases during their infectious periods.

The following locations are considered Tier 1 exposure sites, meaning anyone who visited the venue at the time listed must immediately get tested and quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure.

• Jump! Swim School, Bundoora on May 21 from 8.55am-10.15am.

• Nando’s, Epping on May 19 from 8.30pm-9.20pm

• Woolworths, Epping North on May 22 from 4.45pm-5.45pm

• Highpoint Shopping Centre, Maribyrnong on May 20 from 5pm-8pm

The following locations are considered Tier 2 exposure sites, meaning anyone who visited the site at the time listed should urgently get tested for COVID-19 and isolate until they receive a negative result.

• Futsal Brunswick, Brunswick on May 23 from 9am-10am

• Epping North Shopping Centre, Epping on May 22 from 4.45pm-5.50pm

• House and Party, Epping on May 22 from 5.15pm-5.50pm

• Urban Diner Food Court, Pacific Epping Shopping Centre, Epping on May 23 from 1.15pm-2.30pm

• Shell Coles Express, Reservoir on May 18 from 3.15pm-4.15pm

• B.T. Connor Reserve, Reservoir on May 21 from 8pm-11.30pm