Victorian coronavirus cases surge outside closed Melbourne suburbs

At least 60 of Victoria’s new coronavirus cases over the past two days have been detected in areas outside the 10 postcodes locked down by the Andrews government.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. Picture: Ian Currie

At least 60 of Victoria’s new coronavirus cases over the past two days have been detected in areas outside the 10 postcodes locked down by the Andrews government, prompting questions over whether the lockdowns will have to be expanded.

There was a net increase of at least 33 active cases on Thursday, and 27 active cases on Wednesday that have been attributed by the state’s health department to local government areas that are outside the ­hotspot postcodes.

The Australian’s analysis of the Victorian health department’s local government area COVID-19 case data for Wednesday and Thursday shows there have been at least 17 new cases of the virus in the City of Melbourne, which covers Melbourne’s CBD, only three of which are attributable to new cases in hotel quarantine.

There was also a net increase of 10 infections on Wednesday and Thursday in the southwestern Melbourne LGA of Wyndham, which is home to the Al-Taqwa ­Islamic College in Truganina, so far linked to at least 10 cases.

Because the data takes into account people who have recovered from COVID-19, and therefore reflect the net number of active cases in an LGA, it is not possible to calculate the absolute number of new cases in an LGA each day.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said Victoria’s 77 new cases on Thursday were “largely” within the hotspots, “but not exclusively”. Asked how likely it was that Victoria would have to shut down more postcodes, he said: “I really hope we don’t have to. Though the stay-at-home directions apply to those restricted postcodes, all of us across Victoria have to really consider whether we need to see people in other settings, other households, including family members and friends.

“That will be the best mitigation against new postcodes being included, but those criteria that have been used for the restricted postcodes to date are the same criteria that we would apply to other postcodes, so it’s really up to all of the residents, all of us across Victoria, to ensure that we can keep those numbers down so that no new postcodes need to be considered for restrictions.”

 

The Victorian Health Department’s criteria for locking down the 10 postcodes involved identifying local government areas with more than double the average number of COVID-19 cases for LGAs in Victoria, then reviewing all the postcodes in these LGAs.

Health bureaucrats then identified priority postcodes with more than five cases, and more than 20 cases per 100,000 residents.

Of the LGAs with locked down postcodes, Hume in Melbourne’s outer north has 85 active cases, Brimbank in the outer west has 49, Moreland in the north has 32, as does Moonee Valley in the northwest, while Maribyrnong in the inner west has 10.

 

Other LGAs with high active caseloads but no postcodes in lockdown include the City of Melbourne with 29 active cases, Wyndham with 22, Casey in the outer southeast and Whittlesea in the outer north with 21 each, Melton in the outer northwest with 19, and Yarra in the inner northeast with 12. As of Thursday, there were 413 active cases in Victoria — an increase of 252 in a week.

There have now been 332 cases in Victoria with no known source, up 31 since Wednesday.