Coronavirus: Victoria records highest cases since second wave

Daniel Andrews can’t rule out a longer Melbourne lockdown as Victoria recorded its highest rise in daily infections in 345 days.

People queue for Covid-19 coronavirus tests in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda. Picture: AFP

Victoria has recorded its highest daily coronavirus case count since the state’s deadly second wave last year, leaving Premier Daniel ­Andrews unable to rule out a longer lockdown.

Health authorities on Thursday said they were reassured the vast majority of new cases were quarantined throughout their infectious period but warned the battle was far from over as mystery cases continued to emerge.

Of 57 new community-­acquired cases recorded in the 24 hours to midnight on Thursday, 44 were close contacts quarantined as part of a cluster that emerged just over a fortnight ago, starting with an Al-Taqwa College teacher in her 20s and her ­optometrist partner, who live in Newport in Hobsons Bay in Melbourne’s inner southwest.

That cluster now comprises 255 cases, and includes subclusters at the Caroline Springs Square shopping centre where the teacher’s partner worked, and the Newport football club where he played AFL, as well as a smaller cluster linked to a Melton family, and a larger one linked to Glenroy West Primary School.

A further 10 people spent time in the community while infectious and were linked to more ­recent clusters, including one centred on public housing towers in Carlton, another linked to cases in the Jewish Orthodox community in East St Kilda, and a third associated with an East Malvern pizza shop.

Three mystery cases include residents of Glenroy and Ascot Vale in Melbourne’s northwest, and a resident of Doncaster in Melbourne’s east.

Of 309 cases linked to Victorian outbreaks that have emerged since August 4, 156, or 50 per cent, have been in quarantine for the duration of their infectious period – up significantly from 36 per cent last Sunday.

Mr Andrews on Thursday ­refused to rule out extending Victoria’s sixth lockdown beyond September 2, saying any easing was reliant on low case numbers and high vaccination rates. “These numbers (of cases ­infectious in the community) are better today but they’ll have to be better still, we have to drive them down further,” he said.

Authorities are bracing for similarly high numbers in coming days as close contacts from the Hobsons Bay cluster continue to complete day 13 testing.

Acting Victorian chief health officer Ben Cowie released health department analysis of Victoria’s 529 locally acquired Covid cases between July 12 and August 18, finding that 461, or 87 per cent, were people who were not vaccinated.

Of the 529, 381, or 72 per cent, were not eligible for vaccination when they were infected – in most cases due to their age.

Of 14 people in hospital with coronavirus on Thursday, none had been vaccinated – including nine who were eligible.

Professor Cowie also said health authorities were continuing to see unexpected detections of Covid fragments in sewage from a range of sites around the state.