Coronavirus: Infected children ‘not part of cluster’, says Jenny Mikakos

Three babies and a one-year-old were among 96 new cases of COVID-19 identified in Victoria on Tuesday.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos in Melbourne on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

Three babies and a one-year-old were among 96 new cases of COVID-19 identified in Victoria on Tuesday, as NSW’s caseload exceeded 2000, with 114 new cases confirmed.

Victoria’s total number of cases reached 917. Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the children were not believed to be part of a cluster. “It’s known that one of the cases acquired the infection overseas. Investigations are continuing into the other three cases,” Ms Mikakos said.

All of the children were in isolation at home.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said it remained the view of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee that there was no need to close childcare centres, despite the youngsters’ infections.

“In part that’s around the data that is reassuring that overwhelmingly for children, especially those nine years and younger, the illness with COVID-19 is very mild and deaths are virtually unheard of, so that should be a reassurance to any parent of young children,” he said.

“We have to remain alert to the possibility of transmission from kids to adults, including those who care for those children but, again, that hasn’t been reported in Australia, and there’s very scant evidence of it being a significant factor globally.”

The number of cases in NSW reached 2032, with 35 people being treated in intensive care, 16 of whom have required ventilators. More than 300 NSW cases were contracted on board cruise ships, including 211 on the Ruby Princess.

Seven confirmed cases have also arisen from a group of 100 Chilean navy personnel self-isolating in hotels in Sydney.

The national death toll rose to 19 on Tuesday, after a man in his 80s died at the Royal Hobart ­Hospital.

There have now been 743 COVID-19 cases in Queensland, 355 in Western Australia, 337 in South Australia, 80 in the ACT, 69 in Tasmania and 15 in the Northern Territory.

Professor Sutton said Victoria’s spike could be due to an increase in testing. However, he said a “natural fluctuation day by day” was also to be expected.

Victoria’s daily increases over the past week have ranged from 54 last Friday to 111 on Saturday.

More than 45,000 Victorians had been tested as of Tuesday, up from 25,000 the previous Tuesday.

“(The increase in cases) might relate to the particular volumes of people returning home from international travel,” Professor Sutton said. “That goes up and down from day to day.

“We’ve had different ­announcements on travel restrictions and quarantine arrangements that might have prompted other people to come home a little bit earlier last week. That means we’ve had a boost in cases that have developed symptoms over the last couple of days.”

He said just one case of COVID-19 had so far been detected among hundreds of travellers forced to undergo 14 days of quarantine in Victorian hotels.