Victoria scrambles to fight coronavirus incursions on two fronts

Three removalists and a family who recently returned from Sydney are at the centre of Victoria’s latest Covid-19 incursions from NSW.

A Victoria Police checkpoint in Wodonga on the NSW border. Picture: Simon Dallinger

Victorian health authorities are scrambling to establish the movements of three removalists and a Melbourne family following two separate coronavirus incursions from NSW.

The removalists – two of whom have tested positive for Covid-19 – travelled from Sydney to Melbourne last Thursday, delivering furniture to one Melbourne household and picking up furniture from another before continuing on to Adelaide on Friday and back to Sydney on Saturday.

Separately, two members of a family of four in home quarantine after returning from Sydney last week tested positive for the virus.

Victorian coronavirus logistics chief Jeroen Weimar said NSW health authorities had alerted ­Victoria to a positive result from the first of the removalists late on Sunday night, with case interviews ongoing late on Monday.

“Obviously they’re interstate so the conversations are somewhat complex and challenging,” Mr Weimar said.

“The initial versions of the story are not quite ­lining up at this time so we’re taking a little bit longer than we would really like.

“We’re also looking to their employer, who is providing fuel cards, logbooks and various other bits and pieces.”

Freight exemptions allow trans­port workers to travel across closed state borders, provided they apply for relevant permits and adhere to rules, including sleeping in trucks overnight rather than in other accommodation, and buying only takeaway meals.

Mr Weimar said the removalists had applied for a permit, but it was too early to say whether they had adhered to conditions.

The removalists arrived in Melbourne last Thursday about 12:30pm, delivering furniture to a Craigieburn address in Melbourne’s outer north.

They retrieved furniture from Maribyrnong in the city’s west, before travelling across the border to SA on Friday.

Mr Weimar said a removalist had received a call from NSW contact tracers on Friday advising him he was a close contact of a positive coronavirus case.

The man was tested on his return to Sydney on Saturday and returned a positive result on Sunday. A second removalist tested positive on Monday.

Mr Weimar said both the Craigieburn and Maribyrnong families had been at home when the removalists visited, and both were now isolating.

Victoria’s other recent Covid-19 incursion from NSW involves a family in the Hume local government area in Melbourne’s outer north.

A member of the family who tested positive on Monday had driven back from Sydney on July 8, while the other three members of the family, one of whom has also tested positive, flew back on July 4.

Both positive cases returned negative tests soon after arriving in Melbourne.

All four family members have been isolating at home since ­arriving from Sydney, as red zone arrival requirements dictate.

Mr Weimar said investigations were under way to determine the family’s movements.

Meanwhile, Victoria Police is planning to enforce a hard border along the Murray River for at least another month after NSW ­recorded 112 new cases on ­Monday.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael Grainger said about 350 officers seconded from other ­departments were guarding the border in seven different regions.

He said police had issued six penalty notices and 360 warnings and conducted checks on more than 28,000 people since June 25.

“My message for anyone considering breaching the rules deliberately, in travelling from other states, red zones, into Victoria, is don’t even try it,” Mr Grainger said.