Why Victoria is back in lockdown: Inside the emergency meetings

It’s believed that Thursday’s late-night crisis talks on whether Victoria should go back into lockdown were “heated”. This is how it went down.

Victorians have been sent into another hard lockdown with official confirmation on Friday afternoon.

Stage four restrictions have been placed on all of Victoria.

Click here for the latest details.

A cabinet meeting took place at 11.45am on Friday where they were presented with the plans for the lockdown.

Premier Daniel Andrews fronted a press conference at 1pm, announcing restrictions would come into place from 11.59pm on Friday.

The move was sparked by fears hundreds of travellers could have come into contact with the infected worker at Brunetti’s at Melbourne Airport.

The concern for other states is many of those will then have flown out of Melbourne.

A government source said: “A cabinet meeting is taking place to consider a snap lockdown given the widely infectious nature of this virus means we cannot sit still.”

It is understood the Premier accepted the advice of health authorities despite the COVID Cabinet being split on the move.

Authorities feared Victoria was on the brink of the third COVID-19 wave.

Herald Sun front page for Friday, February 12. Click here to read the Digital Print Edition

High-level discussions began on Thursday night regarding the introduction of a snap lockdown.

State government advisers were on Thursday instructed to draw up a framework for another lockdown.

The Herald Sun understands the national medical expert panel was involved in emergency talks on Thursday night.

As the situation escalated, federal authorities were bracing for new restrictions to be introduced.

On Friday morning, the Department of Health announced five new locally acquired cases had been recorded in the past 24 hours taking the number of active cases in Victoria to 19.

One case was formally reported after midnight but added to the Thursday numbers.

It follows 24,209 tests in the period.

The worsening outbreak and lockdown discussions came amid significant concern over virus fragments detected in wastewater in several areas across Melbourne, understood to be mainly in the northern suburbs.

A source close to Emergency Management Victoria told the Herald Sun authorities feared they had lost control of the outbreak.

The source said there were deep concerns at the failure of contact tracers to match information they had been given by confirmed cases and their close contacts with what the results of sewage testing was showing about the virus’s spread.

The emergency agency was described as being in “pandemonium”.

On Friday afternoon authorities declared all of Terminal 4 at Melbourne Airport as a Tier 1 exposure site (see below), expanding their warning from just Brunetti.

Anyone who visited Brunetti over an 8.5 hour period from 4.45am to 1.15pm on February 9 must immediately isolate, get a test, and quarantine for 14 days.

The Brunetti worker was a close contact of a confirmed case of a Holiday Inn quarantine hotel worker and later developed the virus.

The cafe had been deep-cleaned, an airport spokesperson said.

Twenty-nine flights landed or took off from the domestic terminal at the time the infected worker was on shift.

Melbourne Airport said it was working closely with the government to support its contact tracing efforts.

Speaking on the Neil Mitchell program, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said snap lockdowns had proven to be sensible in other states to give contact tracers a “head start”.

He confirmed Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly and Health Minister Greg Hunt had been working with Victorian authorities on options overnight.

Authorities fear an outbreak related to the Holiday Inn is out of control.

A quarantining hotel guest at the Holiday Inn is moved to a new location on Wednesday. Picture: AAP

Mr Morrison told 3AW that he would not pre-empt the state government’s decisions.

Mr Morrison said he expected with a proportionate and targeted response, the state government should be able to get on top of the outbreak and avoid a repeat of last year’s lengthy lockdown.

The Herald Sun understands some federal MPs and staffers are rushing to make their way to Canberra for next week’s parliamentary sittings, in case new border restrictions are imposed before then.

It is also understood that Thursday night’s discussions in Victoria, which included Premier Daniel Andrews, were heated.

The key concern was that Victoria could be battling an outbreak of the British mutant strain, which has proven much more transmissible than those which devastated Victoria last year.

Health officials were working on the assumption that all cases connected to the Holiday Inn outbreak, which ballooned to 13 infections on Thursday, involve the mutant bug.

Genomic testing has confirmed six of the cases, including the family of three considered the “index cases”, have been infected with the strain and results were pending for the others.

Cleaners disinfect the Holiday Inn hotel.

Restrictions could signal an end to crowds at the Australian Open, although it was not clear on Thursday night whether the grand slam would continue, as the players had endured a 14-day quarantine and could be placed in “secure bubbles”.

Five new cases emerged as part of the Holiday Inn outbreak on Thursday, including the husbands of two food and beverage attendants who worked at the Melbourne Airport hotel.

In an 11pm tweet, the Department of Health confirmed the latest two cases were “household primary close contacts” of existing cases.

It marked the first cases of transmission outside the quarantine system.

Victoria’s testing commander, Jeroen Weimar, said on Thursday it was still “early days” in the outbreak.

“This is by no means over, we are still in the opening quarter of the Holiday Inn outbreak I’m afraid,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to really make sure we pull this one up.

“What is more challenging with this one is it’s the UK variant so we don’t yet know how easily it transmits when you get into the second and third generation of people catching it. That’s going to be the challenge for us now and over the coming days.”

Authorities have deemed 400-500 people close contacts of confirmed cases, including Holiday Inn workers, returned travellers who were staying there and people linked to exposure sites.

Pedestrians wearing masks in Melbourne CBD. Picture: Getty

The original COVID-positive family that triggered the outbreak were transferred from the Holiday Inn to a medi-hotel on February 4.

The health department said anyone at the hotel for more than 15 minutes between January 27 and February 9 was considered a primary close contact and was urged to self-isolate, get a test and stay in isolation for 14 days.

Camberwell Grammar was closed on Thursday as a non-teaching staff member had tested positive. It is not clear whether that member was among the 13.

Mr Weimar said on Thursday contact tracing efforts were being focused on the Sunbury area. Several businesses were listed as exposure sites.

The health department said anyone at the hotel for more than 15 minutes between January 27 and February 9 was considered a primary close contact and was urged to self-isolate, get a test and stay in isolation for 14 days.

A community meeting was held in Sunbury on Wednesday night and Mr Weimar said contact tracing efforts were focused on that area.

Patrons who visited at the same time as an infected food and beverage worker were told to get tested and isolate.

Authorities had issued an alert on Wednesday night for the broader Sunbury Square Shopping Centre, asking anyone who visited from 3.40pm to 4.30pm on February 4, to get tested and isolate until they get a negative result. An osteopathic clinic in Avondale Heights in the city’s northwest was among the sites visited by one COVID-positive case, however was not included on the exposure sites as all clients were contacted directly.

Originally published as Why Victoria is back in lockdown: Inside the emergency meetings