Victorian health authorities are moving to contain a potential COVID-19 outbreak at an inner-city townhouse complex, after identifying suspected transmission between residents.
Key points:
- The two new cases were both quarantined during their infectious period
- Around 50,000 people have booked in for their first Pfizer vaccine this week, prompting a freeze on walk-in Pfizer vaccinations
- On Sunday, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the state remained "on track" for restrictions to ease
The state recorded two new locally acquired coronavirus cases today, both of them children who are primary close contacts of existing cases and were quarantined during their infectious period.
Health Minister Martin Foley said one was linked to a case in the Reservoir household cluster while another was linked to a case in the City of Melbourne identified on Saturday.
He said investigations into the source of infection for the City of Melbourne case indicated they had caught it from an infected Arcare worker who lived in the same "low-rise townhouse complex".
Mr Foley said the Arcare worker had taken up the offer of hotel quarantine when they tested positive, due to concerns they could not safely quarantine at home, but it appeared they had already spread the virus.
"That's the most likely line of inquiry," he said.
"The epidemiology and the interviews with the two cases involved, and the genomic sequencing, seems to support that."
As a result, a number of shared facilities in the townhouse complex have been listed as exposure sites, with teams on site today to test Tier 1 and Tier 2 contacts.
Mr Foley said the Southbank complex, which included more than 100 townhouses, was not listed as a public exposure site at the moment.
He declined to provide more information on how transmission was suspected to have occurred.
An office complex on Freshwater Place in Southbank was added yesterday as a Tier 2 exposure site for a range of times across Thursday and Friday last week.
Mr Foley confirmed this was not linked to the City of Melbourne case.
ABC News: Patrick Rocca
)Workers from Thomastown industrial precinct urged to get tested
Mr Foley said no source of infection had yet been found for the cases at the start of the Reservoir household cluster, who have the Kappa strain.
But he said contact tracers had seen some links with exposure sites in and around Thomastown's industrial precinct, south of the Metropolitan Ring Road.
"As many as 10 public and private exposure sites within this particular pocket of Thomastown with some broad overlap between a number of the positive cases," he said.
"Nothing particularly definite, but as we seek to run down the last few chains of transmission we want to use this as an opportunity to remind everyone who works in that industrial precinct … just to think about any symptoms that you may have had over the last few weeks and to get tested if you have."
The state processed 16,932 test results on Sunday, when 13,764 vaccination doses were delivered at state-run sites.
On Sunday, Professor Sutton said the state remained on track for an easing of restrictions this week, but urged more people to present for testing amid concern some COVID-19 cases could be flying under the radar.
Mr Foley today confirmed things remained on track for eased restrictions.
Authorities are still trying to figure out how a handful of mystery cases are linked to the outbreak, but on Sunday Professor Sutton said there were "early signs of likely links" for some of them.
It is still unclear how the virus jumped from a Wollert man who caught COVID-19 in South Australia to the City of Whittlesea outbreak and how an Arcare Maidstone aged care worker became infected.
Pfizer walk-ins paused at vaccination hubs
The state's vaccination hubs have announced a pause on walk-ins for the Pfizer vaccine from today, after authorities flagged demand was exceeding supply.
In the Sunday evening COVID-19 update, health authorities said about 50,000 people had booked in for their first Pfizer dose this week.
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"This is the number of first doses which can be administered while also delivering second doses for tens of thousands of others," the update said.
"Every first dose booking already in the system for this coming week will proceed.
"Tens of thousands of eligible Victorians are able to book an appointment for their first dose of Pfizer from next week with appointment times progressively being made available."
On its vaccination website, the Department of Health said walk-in appointments were not available for Pfizer, but were still available at some sites for AstraZeneca.
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2021-06-14 02:52:49Z
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