Victoria has recorded four new locally acquired Covid-19 cases on its first full day of its sixth lockdown. Worryingly, all four cases were infectious in the community, the Department of Health reported on Friday morning. They are all linked to previous Delta variant cases. Friday’s official total is six, however two were revealed on Thursday.
Victorian Jobs Minister Martin Pakula understands that businesses need more than four hours notice to lockdown but argues the state government couldn’t afford to delay yesterday’s decision.
“It’s really painful and difficult for businesses who have got to cancel bookings on the day those bookings are going to happen,” Mr Pakula said.
Victoria’s COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar says there’s a lot of work ahead for contact tracers.
“We’re seeing an accelerating curve, we’re seeing significant numbers of parameters of contacts, particularly with a big school exposure site. There’s a big tower of work for us all to get through over the over the coming days,” he said
The Warringa Park school case in Melbourne’s west is “very concerning”, Mr Weimar said, due to the student’s likelihood of underlying health concerns.
Mr Weimar was asked if there’s a link between the Maribyrnong cluster, revealed earlier this week, and the Moonee Valley traffic controller.
“There’s no obvious link. We tested a number of different theories. We can’t identify any relevant visible or tangible link between them,” he said.
“The real focus at the moment is the upstream. Where do they get the infections from?”
Authorities also haven’t worked out how the Hobson Bay couple were infected but are investigating lines of transmission.
