As it happened: Melbourne lockdown to be extended as state records six new local cases; state’s regional area restrictions eased

Four of Wednesday’s six new cases are related to a family who travelled to several locations on the NSW south coast as part of a camping trip in late May.

They returned to Melbourne on May 24, reported the onset of symptoms on May 25 and tested positive for COVID-19 on May 31.

People line up for drive through testing in Huskisson on the NSW South Coast on Wednesday.

Health authorities are still working out which family member contracted the virus first and where they caught it, saying initial interviews had failed to reveal any likely crossover points with existing cases. NSW health authorities put out an alert on Tuesday night in relation to several sites visited by the family and Victoria’s Health Department also added locations linked to their trip to its list of exposure site, including three BP truck stops along the Hume Freeway at Glenrowan, Euroa and Wallan.

Two children from the family attended North Melbourne Primary School last week and it has since been closed to all students.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said another of Wednesday’s new cases was infected while dining at Brighton Beach Hotel on May 23.

The pub was initially listed as a tier-2 exposure site, but Professor Sutton said that since COVID-19 transmission had taken place, it has now been reclassified as a tier-1 location and anyone who was at the venue on May 23 form 3.09pm to 4.52pm will now need to isolate for 14 days from the date of exposure.

Professor Sutton said the venue was a well-ventilated outdoor venue where you wouldn’t normally expect transmission to occur, noting it underlined the heightened risks associated with what the World Health Organisation now calls the “Kappa” variant of COVID-19.

He said although the variant is not the most infectious, it is more infectious than anything Victoria dealt with at the beginning and in the middle of 2020.

The person who caught COVID-19 in Brighton had been staying at their home in Anglesea and a number of stores and other locations in that area were added to the exposure site list on Wednesday morning.

Another of Wednesday’s new cases has been linked to Stratton Finance, a Port Melbourne workplace with over 20 cases connected to the City of Whittlesea outbreak, but Professor Sutton said that individual had been quarantining for the entirety of their potentially infectious period.

Thanks so much for joining us today and tonight. Once again we’ve had a big day with some major announcements.

We will be back again tomorrow morning with another live blog as Melbourne prepares for another seven days of lockdown.

Before I go here is a quick look at some of the major developments today:

Lockdown extended by seven days

Victoria goes into another lockdown, what are the new rules?

Getting on top of mystery cases is the key

Regional and senior students return to school

Lockdown assistance package being considered but must apply nationwide

Collingwood enter tough lockdown to make sure they can play match in Adelaide

Thanks again for all the comments and interactions.

While you are here

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Regional Victoria is poised to emerge from lockdown on Friday as the government outlines a range of restrictions to halt the spread of coronavirus from Melbourne hotspots.

Warnings have been issued to Bendigo residents after wastewater testing found viral fragments this week and an extra testing facility has been opened in Anglesea after an asymptomatic man visited the Surf Coast town between May 25 and 27 before later testing positive to COVID-19.

Jemima Tawse with her husband Daniel and daughter Grace in Neerim South.Credit: Justin McManus

The state government has warned a final decision on reopening regional Victoria won’t be made until Thursday, following a final 24 hours of testing and contact tracing, as Melburnians face an extra seven days of lockdown.

“Victoria knows we can get through this and Victorians also know the only option available for all of us … is that we all follow the advice of our public health experts, that is our path out of this,” acting Premier James Merlino said. “The alternative cannot be considered ... We can’t let this get out of control.”

Click here to read the story.

So lockdown continues. We nearly have this outbreak under control, but are just not quite there yet.

The latest six cases announced on Wednesday captured both good and bad news. One new case has been in quarantine for their entire infectious period with no new exposure sites to add – that’s the best news. Another case moved between an exposure site in Brighton and their home in Anglesea, raising some alarm bells. A Victorian family holidayed over the border in NSW before being tested, and both parents and their two children tested positive yesterday.

One case in this family was reported to have been tested six days after symptoms began on 25 May. This is not such good news. Public heath teams must now work backwards, and across borders to see if there are other potential chains of transmission to follow up.

Click here to read the story.

An estimated 200 or more students and their families will go into a 14-day quarantine after two positive cases were reported at North Melbourne Primary School.

The school was shut on Wednesday with parents receiving an email from the Health Department on Wednesday night informing them that all prep and grade five students, plus the grade five teachers, were considered tier-one contacts so needed to undergo COVID-19 tests and quarantine for 14 days.

North Melbourne Primary School on Wednesday.Credit: Eddie Jim

The families of all prep and grade 5 students were also told to quarantine for 14 days.

“Your family should also remain at home,” the email said.

“If you are tested for COVID-19 and receive a negative result, you must continue your quarantine until the end of the 14-day period. Symptoms may develop anytime between zero to 14 days after the exposure.

“The Department of Health will be in contact with you shortly to discuss this further and complete an interview. You will be informed whether you and your family will be able to leave isolation once your test results are available.”

Grade four students and those in EAL classes and any grade four or EAL teachers were to be considered tier-two close contacts, but it warned some of that group may have been classed as tier-one.

The email said all close contacts would be contacted by the department of health.

All other students and parents have been told to monitor for symptoms and get tested if they feel unwell, it also said that those in the school community can get priority testing at Melbourne Showgrounds on Thursday.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has said via his Facebook page that he hopes to return to work later this month, pending the results of scans and medical check-ups next week.

Mr Andrews said he felt for all those in Melbourne still in lockdown and told people to ‘keep fighting’.

He added in a comment about his meeting with his medical team next week.

NSW Health has identified further venues of concern, backdated to May 19, after a Victorian family visited the state’s south on a holiday before testing positive to COVID-19.

In an update on Wednesday night, the department added venues in the town of Gundagai, in the south-east, and Huskisson on the South Coast.

Times were also expanded for a number of venues first flagged on Tuesday night and further locations may be added as investigations into the family’s movements continue.

Click here to read the story.

Given all the changes to the COVID-19 restrictions that will apply to Melburnians from Friday, including a new 10-kilometre zone and a return to face-to-face teaching for students in years 11 and 12, some might have missed the announcement that checking in at retail outlets will soon become mandatory.

The Victorian government said it would make checking in a condition of entry at all retail and hospitality settings, including supermarkets.

The Victorian government has made checking in a condition of entry for major locations like supermarkets.Credit: Joe Armao

The new rules will apply statewide.

When quizzed at this morning’s COVID-19 press conference on how authorities will enforce the new rule, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said “all of those elements of information, education, supporting people and having an app that’s really easy to use, like the Service Victoria app, that’ll be terrific.

“But the supermarkets, the CEOs of the big chain supermarkets, are ready to go with overseeing to make sure that check-ins are happening exactly as we’d like it.”

The move comes a week after the state moved to a single QR-code system.

Here is our interactive exposure sites list which now has more than 370 locations.

You can find the government’s updating list here.

Travellers to WA from NSW and the ACT who have been to one of the exposure sites visited by a COVID-positive family from Victoria will be required to quarantine upon arrival under updated border rules.

They will also need to get tested for the virus within 48 hours of arriving in WA and on day 11 of quarantine.

The announcement by WA Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson comes after NSW issued an alert for Jarvis Bay, Goulburn, Hyams Beach and Vicentia after it was revealed the family had visited several venues in the area while potentially infectious.

Dr Robertson said NSW health authorities were contact tracing those potentially exposed and would contact WA Health if any close or casual contacts were found to have travelled to WA.

“We believe any risk to WA remains very low,” he said.

“However, the situation highlights the importance of remaining vigilant to prevent any spread of the virus or community transmission in this state.”

Dr Robertson said the government would continue to monitor the situation in NSW and issue updated advice if needed.

Recent arrivals to WA from both states should monitor the NSW and ACT government websites for any updates on exposure locations and get tested if they develop symptoms.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly is back in senate estimates this afternoon and got straight into explaining the country’s hotel quarantine system.

Here’s the breakdown since March last year:

• There have been 358,500 overseas arrivals who have entered the quarantine program
• About 3900 of those returned travellers have tested positive
• There have been 21 cases of transmission from hotel quarantine
• Nine of those cases leaked outside the hotel
• Only seven* cases led to wider community spread, meaning beyond the household of either the worker or person who was released from quarantine

Professor Kelly at a senate hearing in March. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Four of those breaches into the community have occurred since February this year. Each of those outbreaks involved a so-called “variant of concern”, such as the Indian strain.

There are also some outbreaks, including the one in Sydney’s northern beaches, that aren’t included in that tally. While health officials believe it’s most likely linked to return travellers, that was never definitively established.

Professor Kelly also provided a more detailed table of the hotel quarantine leaks, including which states each leak occurred in. (Stay tuned for a fancy graphic on this very soon...)

In terms of the future of quarantine though, it sounds like the 14-day hotel quarantine system is here to stay for at least the near future.

“We’re looking now at what might be done differently once the vaccination rolls out further, and particularly [for] people that are crossing the border who have been vaccinated,” he said.

“But for now that two weeks has remained solid. That’s been a key component.”

*This post has been amended to change the number of quarantine hotel breaches that federal health authorities said led to wider community spread. Professor Kelly initially told the hearing there were six instances but has since corrected the record to note there have been seven.