Victoria to enter stage 3 lockdown as Covid cluster grows to 26
Victoria brings in seven-day ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown from midnight TONIGHT with schools closed and only five reasons to leave home – as cluster grows to 26 with 11 new cases overnight
- A Covid-positive case went out drinking at packed bars until 4am Saturday
- Victorian government held crisis talks on Wednesday about five-day shutdown
- There are also fears the virus may have jumped the border spread into NSW
- The cluster grew to 15 cases on Wednesday, before ballooning to 26 overnight
- There are 79 exposure sites across more than 30 Melbourne suburbs
- Virgin Australia cancelled more than 10 services in and out of Melbourne
Victoria will enter stage 3 lockdown that could last for up to 10 days with schools closed and only four reasons to leave home – as a Covid cluster containing the highly infectious Indian strain grows to 26 with 11 new cases overnight.
Health officials and senior government ministers held crisis meetings on Wednesday night, and will on Thursday announce the lockdown which will begin at midnight.
The number of cases linked to the Whittlesea cluster ballooned to 26, from 15 on Wednesday.
The Victorian Health Department confirmed the new infections on Thursday ahead of a government press conference to discuss the length of the lockdown which is expected to be state-wide.
Schools are set to close, and residents will only be able to leave home for four reasons; exercise, going to work, care giving and medical reasons, and buying food and essentials.
Hospitality venues are also expected to close, with the exception of takeaway.
The lockdown will be officially finalised in a cabinet meeting at 9.30am.
A Covid-infected case last Saturday headed out for a big night in Prahran, in Melbourne’s southeast. They attended three different bars and stayed out until Sunday 4am
Experts warned that if a single case appears that isn’t a household contact – such as someone becoming infected at the Prahran bars – Victoria will ‘push the lockdown button’
One of the Chapel Street pubs the infected reveller visited was the trendy cocktail lounge Three Monkeys (pictured)
Contact tracers are continuing to hunt a ‘missing link’ in the infection chain, with the virus genomically linked to a man who caught it in Adelaide hotel quarantine
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino said in excess of 10,000 primary and secondary contacts have been identified.
‘They will need to either quarantine, or test and isolate, and that number will continue to grow and change,’ he told a press conference on Thursday.
Melbourne’s CBD was almost deserted on Thursday morning, with a usually bustling Federation Square eerily quiet.
‘It’s usually a lot more busy with people going to work or Melbourne Central but it’s pretty quiet today,’ Swanston St cafe worker, Iman Afefy, told The Herald Sun.
As of Thursday morning, there were 80 exposure sites listed on the Health Department’s website, spread across more than 30 Melbourne suburbs and Bendigo, Cohuna and Red Hill in regional Victoria.
Gladys Berejiklian said NSW authorities are monitoring Victoria’s outbreak ‘very closely’ amid fears it could have crossed the border after an infected person attended footy and netball games involving a New South Wales team.
‘I’m worried about the evolving situation and of course we’ll watch closely to see what the Victorian government announces this morning,’ the NSW Premier said on Thursday.
‘We don’t have any intention of closing the borders at this stage, but of course we are very, very concerned with what’s going on.’
The NSW Government has advised people against travelling to Melbourne and Bendigo and Ms Berejiklian also asked people in Victoria not to rush to NSW.
‘Can I please urge anybody who is intending to get in their car and try and beat the lockdown, please think about your fellow citizens, please be safe, please know your actions can really harm so many others.’
Contact tracers are continuing to hunt a ‘missing link’ in the infection chain, with the virus genomically linked to a man who caught it in Adelaide during hotel quarantine.
There is huge concern about further spread of the virus after an infected person partied at three different bars in Prahran, in the city’s southeast, on Saturday night – and ended up kicking on until 4am on Sunday in one of the venues known for packed crowds and a pumping dancefloor.
The pub-crawler, unknowingly infected with the highly contagious B.1.617 double mutant Indian strain of the virus, began the evening at a cocktail bar on Chapel Street called Three Monkeys.
They arrived at about 9.15pm and then went down the street to the famed Somewhere Bar – an establishment frequented by young, hip partygoers.
That Saturday the venue was packed as DJs blasted out tunes late into the night.
Three Monkeys also had a good turnout, raising fears the infected drinker may have sparked a super-spreader event.
‘It wasn’t crazy but it was solid,’ owner Antony Harvey told The Age of the crowd.
The infected person stayed at Somewhere Bar before heading back to Three Monkeys at about 1am.
They then then headed to Circus Bar – known for its raucous dance floor – on Commercial Road and kept the party going until 4am.
The MCG and Marvel Stadium are also amongst concerning exposure sites.
An infected person attended the Collingwood-Port Adelaide AFL game at the MCG on Sunday, while one was also at the North Melbourne-Essendon clash at Marvel Stadium later that same day.
A decision on crowd limits for this weekend’s AFL matches in Melbourne has been delayed and the RISING festival has been cleared to go ahead, for now.
A number of restrictions were introduced for Greater Melbourne on Tuesday evening, including gathering limits of five people at homes and 30 in public and mandatory masks indoors.
The infected person stayed at Somewhere Bar until about 1am (pictured)
The infected pub-crawler kept the party going until about 4am at the Circus Bar (pictured)
It comes as NSW Health said it is urgently contacting people who attended a Central Murray Football and Netball League game between the Victorian club Cohuna and the New South Wales-based team Tooleybuc-Manangatang on Saturday afternoon.
Anyone who attended the footy and netball games, which were held in Victoria but with many fans who travelled from NSW, should immediately get tested and self-isolate.
The infected person also visited the canteen and used the public toilets at the venue.
Health authorities are urging anyone who was at the event between 12pm and 5pm to get tested urgently and isolate until they receive a negative result.
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino (pictured) is expected to announce a lockdown that could be statewide and last up to 10 days
Healthcare workers are seen at work at a Covid-19 testing facility in Melbourne on Wednesday
Genomic sequencing shows the City of Whittlesea outbreak is linked to the case of a Wollert man, who contracted the virus in quarantine in South Australia earlier this month.
A report released on Wednesday in SA found it likely he caught the virus through aerosol transmission due to the ‘timing of doors opening and closing’ at an adjacent room occupied by an infected guest.
South Australia on Wednesday became the first state to close its border to residents of Greater Melbourne. NSW and Queensland are urging residents to reconsider travel to the city and parts of regional Victoria.
Victoria’s last lockdown was for five days in February, after the virus escaped hotel quarantine and infected 13 people.
Patient zero for the latest Victorian outbreak, who came to be known as the Wollert man, returned to South Australia from India on April 19, where he underwent 14 days in hotel quarantine at the Playford Hotel in Adelaide.
The man in his 30s tested negative to the virus three times during his stay and was discharged on May 4 before he travelled to his home in Wollert, in Melbourne’s north.
But a few days later he developed symptoms and genomic testing would later reveal he contracted the virus from another hotel quarantine guest who was staying in an adjacent room.
Contact tracers are continuing to hunt a ‘missing link’ in the infection chain, as policymakers and public health authorities held crisis talks on Wednesday night about whether a shut will be declared. Pictured: Masked pedestrians in Melbourne
Pictured: The Cohuna recreation reserve in Victoria where a sporting event was held between a Victorian and NSW team – and attended by a positive Covid-19 case
His infection has since been gnomically linked to the new shock cluster gripping Melbourne.
But a definitive link between the Wollert man and the outbreak hasn’t been established as contact tracers scramble to find a potential ‘missing link’.
‘The only missing link is the link to the Wollert case from the South Australian hotel quarantine,’ Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said.
While authorities have ‘run down multiple generations of transmission’, Professor Sutton is concerned about the amount of time that positive cases have been out in the community.
‘There are potential exposures there that relate to some days ago that are yet to play out in new cases,’ he said.
The South Australian hotel quarantine breach which has sparked a worrying Covid-19 outbreak in Melbourne is likely to have begun when the virus went from one open door to another (pictured, Melbourne health workers at a testing centre on Wednesday)
