Covid-19: Victoria investigates 2 ‘likely’ cases in Melbourne
As the state tracks four new cases, pressure is on Victoria’s Health Minister over a contact-tracing mistake.
Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien says that if a coronavirus outbreak results from a bungle by contact tracers who named the wrong supermarket as an exposure site, Health Minister Martin Foley should lose his job.
The number of coronavirus cases detected in Melbourne have risen to four, after health authorities uncovered two “likely” positive infections earlier on Monday.
The four new cases are two men, a woman and a preschool-aged child who are all relatives from Whittlesea and live across two households.
The first case was symptomatic from May 20.
Victoria’s Health Department revealed on Friday that it had made a mistake almost a fortnight earlier when it declared Woolworths Epping, rather than Woolworths Epping North, as an exposure site the man had visited.
Mr O’Brien said the Andrews government had “created” Victoria’s second wave of coronavirus “through its own incompetence”.
“They promised us they’ve learnt the lessons, and it seems that they haven’t. If we get another outbreak in Melbourne because this government didn’t do the basics right, then frankly, the Health Minister, and other ministers, need to lose their jobs because Victorians should not pay the price for a government that just gets it wrong too often,” he said.
“The government didn’t work hard to secure our recovery, Victorians have worked hard to secure our recovery, and every time the government makes another stuff up that puts the rest of us at risk, they’re putting at risk all that hard work that Victorians did throughout 2020.”
Authorities scramble in Melbourne
Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan said she had not been briefed regarding the connection between the two likely cases, and it was “too soon” to draw any conclusions about a connection between them and the Wollert case.
Ms Allan said the pair, who are connected to one another, were being urgently retested, isolating, and participating in extensive contact tracing interviews, as she appeared at a press conference on Monday morning to mark the completion of tunnel boring on Melbourne’s Metro rail project.
“As we receive more information from those investigations and from those interviews, we will be updating the Victorian community on whether those likely cases have become positive or negative, and also any information that needs to be provided, for example any potential exposure sites. This information will be provided once those interviews and investigations have concluded,” Ms Allan said.
“Cabinet is meeting today, where we receive a report from the healthcare staff about the Covid situation here in Victoria, and we’ll get that update this afternoon from the Health Minister, also too remembering that the teams are working around the clock right now to gather the additional information that’s needed to most importantly provide that information to the Victorian community.”
Alert issued for wrong venue
Victorians were urged to get tested when it emerged on May 10 that a man in his 30s had contracted coronavirus in South Australian quarantine hotel before travelling home to Wollert on May 4.
More than 100 close contacts of the man subsequently isolated, as did those who had visited the Woolworths Epping supermarket, which was classified as an exposure site due to its proximity to another shop the man had visited and the fact that his bank records listed the store he had visited as “Woolworths Epping”.
It was not until Friday that the health department realised the man had in fact visited Woolworths Epping North.
The department became aware of its mistake after coronavirus fragments were detected in wastewater in the Epping and Wollert areas.
“I appreciate that there’s a real keenness to get as much information as quickly as possible on these two possible likely cases. What’s really important is that we let the public health team undertake the investigations and the interviews so that we can provide the most accurate picture possible to the Victorian community, and that advice is expected later today,” Ms Allan said.
She encouraged Victorians to monitor themselves for coronavirus symptoms, get tested, ensure they check in to public venues using QR codes, and wear masks on public transport.
New cases come amid mask crackdown
The new cases, if found positive, would join two new cases of Covid-19 recorded in hotel quarantine overnight, both of whom were overseas returned travellers.
The news arrives after Victoria Police announced a crackdown on face mask compliance on public transport.
Department of Transport figures found mask wearing compliance is at just 52 per cent, a notable shift from the 88 per cent it was in November last year but a figure authorities say is not good enough.
From today until June 6, commuters who fail to wear a mask will be fined $200.
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