Coronavirus: Recalcitrant truckie linked to another Victorian cluster

Authorities could seize GPS phone-tracking data from positive cases after a tyre delivery worker’s failure to disclose a trip to Shepparton.

People queue at the Shepparton Showgrounds for testing on Wednesday after a new COVID-19 cluster emerged. Picture: David Geraghty

A tyre delivery worker’s failure to disclose a trip to Shepparton has given coronavirus a two-week head start in the northern Victorian town, a week after Premier Daniel Andrews declared that the associated­ Chadstone virus cluster was “under control”.

Thousands of Shepparton residents queued for hours to get tested on Wednesday, after health authorities issued a late-night alert on Tuesday confirming three workers at the town’s Central Tyre Service had tested positive for the virus, having been exposed on September 30 — 13 days prior — with numerous sites around Shepparton now considered high risk for exposure.

Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on Wednesday that the three Shepparton cases were linked to a Melbourne-based tyre delivery truck driver, who had previously admitted to illegally eating at the Oddfellows Cafe in Kilmore, north of Melbourne, on September 30, and later spending 90 minutes at White Line Tyres in Benalla, in Victoria’s northeast, but had not revealed the Shepparton visit to contact tracers.

The man was a household contact of a worker at the Butcher Club store at Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne’s southeast.

On September 28, two days ­before the man’s ­regional road trip, the Butcher Club store manager­ had tested positive for the virus. The shop was closed the next day for a deep clean and staff details were forwarded to DHHS.

On the day of the trip, DHHS first publicly mentioned the cluster, confirming two further cases had been detected in household contacts of Butcher Club workers.

Asked on Wednesday whether the truck driver would have been aware of the situation at his family member’s workplace, the Premier, DHHS deputy secretary in charge of contact tracing Jeroen Weimar, and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said they would have to take the question on notice.

The Chadstone cluster, which now totals 35 directly linked cases, was sparked by a cleaner from a large Frankston family who worked at the butcher’s shop between­ September 21 and 23, despite­ having been ordered to isolate after members of her family — who also cleaned at the store — tested positive for the virus.

According to Butcher Club management, it was not until police visited the cleaner’s home on September 24 to order her to stay home that she rang the Butcher Club to say she would not be coming to work.

The Frankston family, Kilmore and Shepparton clusters are all being treated as separate to the linked Chadstone cluster.

As of Wednesday, the Frankston family cluster had reached 13 cases, five of which were active, the Kilmore cluster was at six cases (five active), and the Shepparton cluster was at three cases.

On October 7, Mr Andrews had declared he was confident the Chadstone cluster — then at 31 cases, with two cases in Kilmore — was “under control”.

On Wednesday, the Premier said the truck driver’s failure to “tell the full story” about his trip to Shepparton had been referred to police, who would make “further judgments” about whether a fine should be issued.

“You don‘t get in trouble if you tell the full story, I want to make that clear to people,” Mr Andrews said. “You potentially do get into trouble if you don’t.”

Victoria recorded seven new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, including the three in Sheppar­ton and just four in Melbourne­ — compared with 11 locally transmitted cases in NSW.

Professor Sutton confirmed health authorities could seize GPS phone-tracking data from positive cases, but said a “balancin­g act” was needed to ensure contact tracers did not make people so fearful they withheld information.

“We have to balance the willingness of people to declare anything, about whether they have a phone, whether they took the phone with them, whether they’ll be prepared to hand it over or we need to go to court,’’ he said.

“So there are element­s about establishing rapport­ and trust that need to be the starting point with everyone, but yes, we will use whatever tools are available if there’s a need to interroga­te further some of that data.’’

Hundreds of masked Shepparton residents hurried to get tested on Wednesday. Overwhelmed sites were turning people away from the early afternoon.

On the list of high-risk sites were the tyre business and a series of venues visited by virus-positive workers, including the Mooroopna Golf Club members’ bar, the Shepparton Marketplace Medical Centre, the Thai Orchid restaurant, and Bombshell hair salon.

Sites listed as having potential for casual contact include a Bunnings­, McDonald’s Shepparton North, the Lemon Tree Cafe, and the Mooroopna Golf Club shop. Lemon Tree Cafe owner Leanne Stride said the news was devastating for the town. “I’m ­really concerned for the community, considering we’ve all been doing the right thing,” she said.