Victorian health officials reveal two ‘false positives’
Health officials have revealed multiple Victorians thought to have caught Covid-19 by ‘fleeting contact’ during the latest outbreak have been reclassified.
Two people thought to have been infected with Covid spread by “fleeting contact” during Victoria’s latest outbreak have been reclassified by health officials as “false positives”.
The health department made the announcement on Thursday evening after two new locally acquired cases of coronavirus were recorded earlier in the day.
“Following analysis by an expert review panel, and retesting through the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, two cases linked to this outbreak have been declared false positives,” the department said in a statement.
The cases include a woman who was previously understood to have acquired the virus at a Metricon display homes exposure site and a man who was thought to have contracted the virus at the Brighton Beach Hotel exposure site.
“These cases will be reclassified and no longer considered confirmed cases,” the health department said.
“Primary close contacts who are linked only to these cases and not to other exposure sites will be released.
“Any exposure sites linked only to these cases will be stood down, including every exposure site in Anglesea.”
The health department said the Brighton Beach Hotel and the Metricon display home suite would remain exposure sites as they were linked to other cases.
“Individuals, venues and businesses affected must await formal clearance from the Department of Health or a local public health unit, which will occur throughout the evening,” the statement said.
The two previously thought to be positive cases were used by the state’s top health officials as part of their justification for the extended lockdown in Melbourne.
The two cases were thought to be a group of at least four incidents where the virus was spread by “fleeting contact”.
“We’re concerned about evidence, in four or five incidents, where we have seen transmission in these places with very fleeting contact,” Covid response commander Jeroen Weimar said earlier this week.
“We have transmission in places like the Telstra store in South Melbourne, JMD Grocers (in Epping), the Mickleham display home and at Craigieburn Central shopping centre.
“And they’re all examples of transmission with very limited contact. This is stranger-to-stranger transmission.”
He said with previous variants authorities were more used to transmission occurring in the home, the workplace or where people know each other already.
“Would this have happened last year, I’m sure it will have done. What we can see with the Indian variant here is its happening relatively often,” Mr Weimar said.
The announcement brings the state’s active case count back to 67 as the number of exposure sites was increased to 370.
Victoria’s health department reported three new cases on Thursday, but one of those infections was announced on Wednesday in aged care.
It comes as health authorities announced a seven day extension to lockdown in the greater Melbourne area, while Covid restrictions relaxed in regional Victoria.
The latest exposure areas of concern are six buses in the city of Whittlesea in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, where the first few cases of the latest outbreak first emerged in early May.
More than 300 of the exposure sites have been connected to the city of Whittlesea outbreak.
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