Victorian health authorities urge people to get tested after multiple ‘unexpected detections’

There are fears coronavirus is spreading undetected after authorities revealed locations where ‘unexpected detections’ of Covid-19 emerged.

Health authorities are urging Victorians to get tested for Covid-19 in areas where there have been “unexpected detections” of the virus in wastewater catchments.

It comes as Acting Premier James Merlino announced an extension of lockdown for greater Melbourne after the state posted six new local infections on Wednesday.

Health Minister Martin Foley said health authorities had also noticed traces of Covid in locations that “don’t necessarily line up with where we know infectious cases are present”.

“While these unexpected detections may be due to a range of factors – someone who has had Covid-19 in the past who may no longer be infectious – it is also possible that they can be an indicator as to an undiagnosed infectious case,” he told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley announces unexpected wastewater detections. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

The unexpected detections were recorded in Bendigo between May 27 and May 28, in the section of the Mornington Peninsula between Safety Beach, St Andrews Beach and Portsea between May 27 and May 31.

“There are listed exposure sites in both of these regions and we are working through those possibilities with our public health team,” Mr Foley said.

“But the advice to members of the community in those particular areas is if you have any symptoms and if you particularly live these areas, please get tested now.”

There are 67 active cases across Victoria and more than 350 exposure sites.

Victoria chief health officer Brett Sutton says there could still be people in the community who are infectious. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

Victoria chief health officer Brett Sutton said contact tracers were keeping up with the spread of the virus, but warned there could still be people in the community who were infectious but had not come forward.

“We are chasing down every case, we are chasing down their primary contacts but we have seen a growth of probably a dozen primary close contacts for that first case to thousands upon thousands,” he said.

“Those are individual whose could become positive and we are seeing individuals where we don’t know how they’ve acquired it. That means there are people out there potentially who have it and who are not aware that they are infectious.

“So we need the number of contacts that each and every person across Victoria has, Melbourne in particular, to be limited to just a few people and not 100 people.”