Coronavirus: Unknown sources in over 2000 Victorian cases

The number of Victorian coronavirus cases for which contact tracers have been unable to establish a source has hit 2159 since the pandemic began.

Allen Cheng at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.

The number of Victorian coronavirus cases for which contact tracers have been unable to establish a source increased by 128 in the 24 hours to Tuesday, to a total of 2159 since the pandemic began.

This does not include 3418 cases still under investigation.

The new figures highlight the challenge faced by Victoria’s contact­ tracing team, which has been taken over this week by three eminent infectious diseases physicians, professors Allen Cheng, from The Alfred hospital, Rhonda Stuart from Monash Health, and Paul Johnson from Austin Health.

They have been made deputy chief health officers, replacing­ DCHO Annaliese van Diemen, who has been moved sideways to oversee Victoria’s H7N7 avian flu outbreak.

Professor Cheng appeared publicly alongside Premier Daniel­ Andrews for the first time on Tuesday. Asked whether Dr van Diemen’s replacement with three professors was an indica­tion that Victoria’s contact tracing team had not had the leader­ship required, as it battles 6706 active cases of COVID-19, Professor Cheng said Dr van Diemen had done “a great job”.

“We’re realising the workload that the whole team have been doing over the last six months,” he said. “We’re happy to help, and yes, there’s a number of us that are contributing to try and help with this fight.”

Of the 429 new cases on Tuesday­, only 63 have been linked to known outbreaks, with the remainin­g 376 still being investigate­d.

Victoria recorded 11 corona­virus deaths in the 24 hours to Tuesday, bringing the state‘s death toll from the virus to 147 — 127 of which have occurred since July 5.

The 11 new deaths followed 13 deaths in the 24 hours to Monday. All of them were linked to aged-care facilities.

The most recent deaths included those of a man in his 70s, a man and three women in their 80s, two men and three women in their 90s, and one woman older than 100.

There are now 1186 active cases linked to Victorian aged-care facilities, up from 1089 on Monday — an increase of 97.

There were 456 people with coronavirus in Victorian­ hospit­als on Tuesday, up from 456 on Monday, including 38 in intensive care, up from 35 on Monday.

The Premier said that approx­imately 21,000 tests had been ­processed in the 24 hours to Tuesday­, working out to a positive test rate from the 439 new cases of 2.09 per cent — up from 1.72 per cent on Monday, but down from Sunday‘s record 3.73 per cent.

There have been 11,319 cases in people from metropolitan Melbourne and 728 in those from regional­ Victoria, as well as 6038 cases in men and 6193 in women.