Fears over 760 mystery cases

Announcing Victoria’s six-week stage-four lockdown and curfew on Sunday, Daniel Andrews highlighted 760 active cases unable to be traced.

Melburnians enjoy their last taste of freedom in the city as Victoria enters into stage four restrictions. Picture: Paul Jeffers

Announcing Victoria’s six-week stage-four lockdown and curfew on Sunday, Premier Daniel Andrews highlighted 760 active cases where contact tracers had been unable to find a source of infection as “the most important number”.

In many ways, this number alone underplays the challenge Victoria faces in getting on top of the virus. As Mr Andrews acknowledged, 598 of Victoria’s 671 new cases on Sunday remain under investigation, among 3163 unknown unknowns.

The 760 active cases represent the known unknowns, and are among 1962 cases for which contact tracers have been unable to establish a source since the pandemic began.

There have been 5125 Victorian cases that either remain under investigation or for which contact tracers have not found a source, representing 44 per cent of the 11,557 cases in the state since the pandemic began.

As of Sunday, there were 6322 active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria — with Sunday’s 671 new cases increasing the seven-day daily average to a record 518 cases, up from the previous record of 488 on Saturday.

Another key number weighing on the Premier’s mind was the death toll in Victoria, which doubled in eight days from 61 deaths on July 25 to 123 on Sunday.

Among seven deaths in the 24 hours to Sunday were those of three women in their 70s, two women in their 80s, a woman in her 90s and a man in his 90s. Six of the seven were residents of aged-care facilities.

Mr Andrews said there had been about 18,000 tests processed in the 24 hours to Sunday, although he did not have an exact figure.

Based on 18,000 tests processed, there was a positive test rate from Sunday‘s 671 new cases of 3.73 per cent — the highest on record — up from Thursday’s record of 3.63 per cent.

There were 649 active cases among healthcare workers on Sunday, and 1053 active cases across 79 Victorian aged-care ­facilities.

There have been 1254 cases across 106 facilities in the state since the pandemic began.

Of these, 593 have been in residents, 527 have been in staff, and 134 have been in other close c­ontacts.

There have been 69 corona­virus deaths in Victoria linked to aged-care facilities — or 56 per cent of the state’s total death toll since the pandemic began.

A child under nine remained in intensive care in Victoria with corona­virus on Sunday, alongside one person in their 20s, two in their 30s, two in their 40s, 10 in their 50s and 12 in their 60s.

There were 385 people in Victorian hospitals with the virus on Sunday, of whom 38 were in ICU.

One person aged 10-19, 10 in their 20s, 10 in their 30s, nine in their 40s, 26 in their 50s, 42 in their 60s, 62 in their 70s, 125 in their 80s and 61 aged 90 and above were in hospital with the virus, but not in ICU.

There were also eight people in their 70s and two in their 80s in ICU.

Two Victorian local government areas now have more than 700 active cases of coronavirus each, and both recorded net increases of more than 50 active cases in the 24 hours to Sunday.

Brimbank, in Melbourne‘s outer west, has 734 active cases, with a net increase on Sunday of 50, while neighbouring Wyndham, in the outer southwest, has 728 active cases, with a net increase of 52.

There were double-digit net increases in 12 other local government areas across Victoria on Sunday, including in the regional centres of Greater Geelong and Colac-Otway.