As it happened: State lockdown likely to be extended, NSW exposure sites from Melbourne case revealed

That brings us to the end of the fifth day of Melbourne’s seven-day lockdown. As we’ve reported below, it looks likely that this lockdown is going to be extended.

Meanwhile, the Melbourne outbreak may have spread to NSW with news late tonight that a potentially infectious case spent time in Jervis Bay, Goulburn, Hyams Beach, and Vincentia last week.

Although there were just three new cases reported in Victoria since midnight last night, authorities are very concerned about the particular variant circulating in the Victorian community.

Today we heard much about the various examples of the virus being transmitted between strangers who brushed past one another in shops and in a display home

We’re finishing the night with more than 350 exposure sites and 54 cases (including one in hospital) in this outbreak.

The blog will be back in morning first thing to bring you whatever news comes our way.

Until then, stay safe and stay well.

The alerts for new exposure sites around Victoria are coming in thick and fast tonight. There’s been at least 10 new exposure sites uploaded in the past couple of hours alone to the Victorian Department of Health’s website.

Three different BP service stations have been revealed as Tier 1 and Tier 2 exposure sites on May 24 at Euroa, Glenrowan and Wallan.

In Melbourne’s CBD GTA Consultants on Collins Street, Coles Spencer Street, Officeworks on Russell Street and the male public toilets on Bourke Street have all also been listed as either Tier 1 or Tier 2 for various days last week.

Tonight three separate alerts for Craigieburn Central shopping centre were also listed for May 23 and May 26.

The full list is over 350 now, so keep checking it regularly.

NSW Health has issued a public health alert after a positive COVID-19 case from Melbourne visited a number of locations in the state’s south.

The department on Tuesday night said it had been advised by Victoria’s Department of Health that the case was in Jervis Bay, Goulburn, Hyams Beach, and Vincentia while potentially infectious on Sunday, May 23 and Monday, May 24.

The person drove back to Melbourne on May 24, reported the onset of symptoms on May 25 and was tested for COVID-19 on Monday, May 31.

“The case visited a number of venues in Jervis Bay, Goulburn, Hyams Beach, and Vincentia while potentially infectious,” NSW Health said.

Anyone who attended the following venues of concern in the times listed is asked to immediately called NSW Health on 1800 943 553, get tested for COVID-19 and isolate until you receive further information from public health officials.

• Cooked Goose Cafe, 76 Cyrus Street, Hyams Beach - 10am-12pm, Sunday, May 23
• Coles Vincentia Shopping Village, 21 The Wool Road, Vincentia - 12-1pm , Sunday, May 23
• Green Patch camp ground, Booderee National Park, Village Bay Road, Jervis Bay - All day Sunday, May 23 and until 9am on Monday, May 24
• Shell Coles Express Big Merino, 1/3 Sowerby Street, Goulburn - 10-11.30am, Monday, May 24
• Trapper’s Bakery, 4 Sowerby Street, Goulburn - 10.30am-11.30am on Monday, May 24

  Read more here.

An aged care facility in Melbourne’s east has been sent into lockdown this evening after a staff member was confirmed as a primary contact of a confirmed case.

Menarock LIFE aged care in Heathmont went into full lockdown just before 6pm tonight, according to an all-staff email seen by The Age.

“I can assure you we are doing everything possible to minimise any effect on our close-knit community,” the email from facility management reads.

When contacted directly, the facility declined to comment.

The Victorian Department of Health has been approached for more detail on the case.

It follows lockdowns at BlueCross Western Gardens aged care facility in Sunshine and Arcare Maidstone Aged Care Facility.

A crew member on a ship docked in Perth who tested positive for COVID-19 has been sent back to his vessel after health authorities deemed his test results a historical positive.

The man, in his 20s, was taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital from the Italian-flagged carrier ship the Allegra on Sunday for an unrelated illness, but standard COVID-19 testing picked up a weak positive.

He returned a positive test again on Monday and was taken into hotel quarantine.

Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said further testing had revealed the crew member was actually a historical case.

“He previously advised that he had the disease in the Philippines, back in April, and certainly what we’ve seen is that this case is now negative,” Dr Robertson said.

“He will be discharged from the hotel quarantine today returned to the ship and then we’ll work with the ship to get it on its way.“

Read more here.

The number of exposure sites in Victoria has just crept up to 342 locations, with one of the latest sites added to the Department of Health’s register from an exposure nearly two weeks ago.

A positive case attended Sahib-E-Swad Restaurant on Palmers Road in Truganina on May 23 between 7:45pm and 9:30pm, while a positive case also attended JMD Grocers & Sweets on High Street in Epping on May 18 between 6:40pm and 7:20pm.

Both sites are Tier 1 meaning anyone who attended needs to test and isolate for 14 days.

The exposure site list is growing all the time, so it’s wise to check it at least a couple of times a day.

Victoria’s lockdown is expected to continue beyond its original Thursday deadline amid fears that the state’s “fastest-moving” outbreak has yet to be contained.

Senior government ministers met on Tuesday night to receive a high-level briefing from health authorities about extending the stay-at-home orders in an attempt to combat an outbreak in which one in 10 positive cases have caught the virus from a stranger.

A source close to the government, speaking on the condition of anonymity because a final decision had not yet been made, said Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton’s team was leaning strongly toward recommending a lockdown extension.

Professor Sutton said the Indian variant of the virus was “an absolute beast” because “it has moved faster than any other strain we’ve dealt with”.

“We’re seeing transmission in settings and circumstances we’ve never seen before,” he said.

Three new cases were recorded on Tuesday, the number of exposure sites grew to 342, and Health Minister Martin Foley took to referring to the cluster of cases as the “South Australian hotel outbreak” – a reference to the first case picking up the virus in an Adelaide quarantine hotel.

One cabinet minister said there was growing concern within the government about airborne spread. A new mystery case or any more cases of “fleeting transmission” – where the virus spreads between strangers at exposure sites – would inevitably trigger an extension of the lockdown, the minister said.

Another minister, speaking to The Age before the briefing, said an extended lockdown was likely.

Read more here.

The Victorian head of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation has called for the resignation of aged care minister Richard Colbeck after less than 10 per cent of aged care workers in the private sector have been vaccinated for COVID-19.

The federal government’s initial goal was to have the majority of the 190,000 aged care residents and roughly 366,000 workers vaccinated in the first six weeks of the rollout.

But it was revealed in a budget estimates hearing on Tuesday that so far just 32,833 aged care workers – or less than 10 per cent – have received both doses to be fully vaccinated.

As we reported at 8.37am this morning, Mr Colbeck told ABC Radio National this morning that he was happy with the pace of the roll-out to aged care staff under his watch.

In response this afternoon, Victorian Secretary of the nursing union Lisa Fitzpatrick said that Mr Colbeck should “hang up the boots and give it to somebody who’s motivated and enthusiastic and wants to get the job done”.

“Yes, I am calling for him to resign,” she told ABC Radio Melbourne host Raf Epstein this afternoon.

“I think that’s a terrible indictment, to be comfortable with less than 10 percent of the workforce vaccinated.”

Ms Fitzpatrick said her union had lobbied the government back in April to give the job of vaccinating private aged care workers to state authorities so that workers could be vaccinated as hospitals, rather than through private contractors.

“So I think it’s incompetence [and] unwillingness,” she said.

The union boss also said she believed that moves by Health Minister Greg Hunt to make vaccines mandatory for workers was “smokescreen” to distract from the sluggish rollout.

“I’m very concerned that that’s a scapegoat for the federal government to get people talking about mandatory vaccinations,” she said.

“Generally speaking with the flu vaccination there’s been about a 98 per cent uptake in relation to vaccination, so nurses that work in the sector they’re very good at getting vaccinating.

“I’m very confident that if they’re given the opportunity, the information that they will go and get it done.”

Some breaking news out of Western Australia just now: COVID-19 has been transmitted between neighbouring rooms at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Perth - but health authorities are confident in mitigation steps they have taken to prevent community spread.

The Pan Pacific in Perth.Credit: David Prestipino

West Australian Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said in a press conference a short time ago that genomic sequencing had found a positive case from May 23 of a man who had come from Colombia and a second man on May 31 were linked.

A family of three who were opposite the second man have so far tested negative but have been moved to another room in quarantine.

A further 12 people from the same floor who were not near the two men, referred to as cases 1017 and 1018, have left quarantine but will continue to be tested for the virus.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Robyn Lawrence said the nearest guests to the people who remained in quarantine had been four rooms away from where the cases were recorded.

Security guards who worked on the floor since the cases have so far returned negative tests for COVID-19.

Read more here.

The think tank behind Victoria’s coronavirus catch-up tutors program says the Andrews government should urgently prioritise reopening schools to limit lost learning for struggling students, as principals prepare for the possibility that remote learning will continue for a second week.

There are growing calls across the school sector for educators to join aged care and disability workers in getting fast-tracked vaccinations to reduce the risk of another prolonged period of remote learning.

Julie Sonnemann of the Grattan Institute says there’s a real risk protracted school shutdowns will harm some students.Credit: Janie Barrett

Julie Sonnemann, school education fellow at the Grattan Institute, warned that there was a real risk that protracted school shutdowns would harm some students, particularly those who struggled with remote schooling last year.

“Getting schools reopened as soon as possible should be a key priority for government,” she said.

The Andrews government has rolled out a $250 million tutoring learning program and school mental health packages this year to address the fallout from almost two terms of remote learning in 2020.

These programs are continuing online during Victoria’s fourth lockdown, which includes a statewide shift to home learning until at least Thursday.

But Ms Sonnemann said online tutoring for a small handful of students could only do so much during a lockdown and that the quality of whole-class remote learning needed to be improved.

Read the full story here.