Victorian health officials are still trying to identify the source of several mystery cases in the growing Melbourne COVID-19 outbreak on day 10 of the lockdown.
Key points:
- Health officials continue to try and identify where the Delta cases came from
- Sharon Lewin from the Doherty Institute said genomic sequencing might not be able to find a match
- Investigations continue into two new unlinked cases, one of which closed a major construction site
There were 70 infections linked to the outbreak by Saturday, including one person who has since recovered from COVID-19.
As well as focusing attention on the worrying emergence of the highly infectious Delta strain of the virus, authorities are concerned about a number of cases that can't be linked to a known source.
The new two cases outlined on Saturday have one thing in common with earlier cases; one of them shopped frequently Epping Plaza and Craigieburn Central — two known exposure sites.
Their shopping times don't match up with previous cases or exposure times but that remains an avenue of investigation.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he did consider shutting down those two shopping centres but "people need to shop."
The shopper's partner (the other new case) works as a cleaner at a large building site.
That person is now in isolation. The construction site has been shut down and 170 close contacts are in isolation.
Asked if health officials were keeping up with the outbreak COVID-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar said they were starting to see some stability in some of the outbreaks.
"I'm a little concerned, like Brett, about the two new cases today associated with Craigieburn, but I'm really very, very confident that we'll take those to ground very quickly," he said.
The West Melbourne cluster
There were two new cases in the West Melbourne cluster which began when a family of four went on holiday to New South Wales in the Jervis Bay and Goulburn regions.
Two families of four have been infected.
One of those new cases is a child and the ninth person in the cluster is a work colleague of the father from the first family.
These people all have the more-infectious Delta strain and how they got it is a mystery.
"Obviously we're doing a lot of work at the moment with the families involved with the Delta outbreak," Mr Weimar said.
"There are no connections to sensitive settings from those families or connections to sensitive occupations or sensitive sectors," testing commander Jeroen Weimar said.
Sharon Lewin, the director of the Doherty Institute, said officials had completed genomic sequencing on all of the state's active cases but have been unable to connect the Delta strain to any other cases in Australia.
"Every effort is being made right now to look for that match but we may not get the match," Professor Lewin said.
She thinks it's most likely it came from the hotel quarantine system.
Unexpected discovery of COVID-19 fragments found in wastewater
On Saturday night the Department of Health urged residents and visitors to a number of suburbs in Melbourne's inner west and northern suburbs to monitor for symptoms of coronavirus after an unexpected detection of COVID-19 in wastewater.
The suburbs include Aberfeldie, Essendon, Essendon West, Flemington, Footscray, Kensington, Maribyrnong, Moonee Ponds, Parkville, and Travancore
There are no confirmed COVID-19 cases in those areas but there are exposure sites and it is close to West Melbourne where there are confirmed cases.
The water testing program is designed as an early warning system and anyone who develops symptoms should get tested.
Fragments can also be detected in wastewater when a person sheds the virus after recovering.
It's not clear whether the mysteries surrounding the Delta strain or the two new unlinked cases would delay the end of the second lockdown.
Professor Sutton said if no new problematic cases arose contact tracers could manage the outbreak.
"I'm confident those pillars of public health response, the contact tracing, and the rings of control that we put in place can manage this as it can for any variant," he said.
Health Minister Martin Foley said there was no simple answer to the question of when lockdown would end.
"Rest assured people of Victoria that we don't want to keep this system in place for a moment longer than the public health system advises," he said.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTA2LTA2L3JhY2UtdG8tZmluZC1jbHVlcy10by12aWN0b3JpYS11bmxpbmtlZC1jb3ZpZDE5LWNhc2VzLzEwMDE5MzQyONIBKGh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMDAxOTM0Mjg?oc=5
2021-06-05 14:03:40Z
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