Seven new COVID-19 exposure sites identified in Melbourne - The Age

Seven new high-risk coronavirus exposure sites have been identified by health authorities, linked to the growing Holiday Inn cluster, as Victorians begin their first day of a snap five-day lockdown.

It comes as The Age revealed the returned traveller blamed for spreading coronavirus inside the hotel using a nebuliser says he was twice given permission from Victorian health authorities to use the medical device.

Daniel Andrews as he announced a snap shutdown on Friday.Credit:Getty Images

The seven new exposure sites published by the Health Department overnight include train lines and venues in the city’s south and north:

• Saturday 6 February
  Function venue: 426 Sydney Rd, Coburg – 7:14pm – 11:30pm
• Monday 8 February
  Coates Hire Werribee: Hoppers Crossing - 6.45am - 7.30am
  Caltex Woolworths: Hoppers Crossing - 6.40am - 7.15am
  Stowe Australia: South Melbourne - 10.30am - 10.45am
• Tuesday 9 February
  901 bus route - (Melb Airport to Broadmeadows Station) – 1:02pm – 1:49pm
  Craigieburn Line train (Broadmeadows Station to Glenroy Station) – 1.25pm – 1.59pm
  513 bus route - (Glenroy Station towards Eltham) – 1.35pm – 2.17pm

Anyone who visited any of the listed venues at the time and dates listed is required to get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days regardless of the initial test result.

Meanwhile, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has also come under pressure to explain why almost half of the close contacts from the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel cluster were not contacted within the benchmark 48 hours on Tuesday.

Epidemiologist Catherine Bennett from Deakin University has hosed down some of Premier Daniel Andrews’ claims about the hyper-infectivity of the UK variant in Victoria justifying a severe lockdown

On Friday, Mr Andrews said the stage-four lockdown was necessary because the British strain fuelling the 13-person Holiday Inn outbreak was spreading more rapidly than the previous version.

“This hyper-infectious variant is moving at hyper-speed ... If you’ve got close contacts being infected at the same time you are learning about the case, then you have to go beyond just contact tracing ... That is the absolute key point,” Mr Andrews said.

Professor Bennett said while the mutant strains of COVID-19 were more infectious, it was only by a degree of a few percentage points.

“We know they’re more infectious, but the data tell us that the difference is between 11 per cent of your close contacts being infected after exposure and 14.7 per cent. So, it’s an increase of what is actually, on average, a low base,” she told ABC’s News Breakfast program this morning.

“That’s what we saw in Queensland and WA - very low or little, or no, transmission beyond those workers. So, this should be manageable.”

After an anxious wait on Friday morning, Victorians were told there would only be four reasons to leave home: shopping for things you need, care and caregiving, exercise, and essential work. The 5km limit for leaving home has also been reinstated.

The Victorian government has paused all international flights from Saturday, excluding those already in transit. The Premier also flagged he would advocate a drastic reduction in the number of people allowed to return from overseas and a move to using quarantine facilities outside major population centres.

There were extraordinary scenes at Rod Laver Arena on Friday night when play was stopped and an announcement made for spectators to leave the grounds because of the looming midnight lockdown.

There has been confusion over the number of infected people linked to Melbourne Airport, after a text message issued by NSW authorities overnight included dates not listed yet by Victorian authorities.

The text message was sent to NSW residents isolating after returning from Victoria as well as Victorian residents who had recently visited NSW indicating an additional coronavirus case linked to Melbourne Airport.

The text message, sent about 8pm on Friday, says “a person who attended Melbourne Airport on the 7th and 8th of February has tested positive for COVID-19”.

“All people there on these dates are advised to get tested for COVID-19 as soon as possible and self-isolate until you have received a negative test result,” NSW Health said in the text message.

A Victorian coronavirus case announced Thursday worked as a cleaner at the airport on February 7 and 8, but had no contact with passengers and no contact with anyone but their staff group.

The same person also worked at Camberwell Grammar, which was later closed and deep cleaned. Close contacts for the cleaner from both sites have so far tested negative.

The Melbourne Airport dates mentioned in the NSW Health text are not listed as exposure sites, according to the Department of Health.

Victorian advice currently lists Melbourne Airport’s Terminal 4 as an exposure site on February 9 from 4.45am to 2pm where a cafe worker had a shift. Brunetti cafe, where the worker was employed, is an exposure site from 4.45am to 1.15pm.

- With Ashleigh McMillan, Jenny Noyes

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2021-02-12 20:09:00Z
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