Victoria has recorded five new local cases of coronavirus as authorities scrambled to find the source of an alarming new strain of coronavirus.
There was one new case in hotel quarantine which is understood to have been infected overseas.
The results come after 36,362 test results were received on Friday.
Tweet from @VicGovDH
Meanwhile, contact tracers are working to find the local source of the new variant after genetic testing revealed the strain in at least two people in a family of four who travelled to regional NSW at the end of May.
The highly infectious Delta strain has ravaged India and is been listed as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation.
There are also fears children are more susceptible to it than previous strains and appears to have spread further, to another family of three, through two Grade 5 children coming into contact at North Melbourne Primary School.
The cluster now comprises seven people; the family of four who visited Jervis Bay in New South Wales and three new cases — two parents and a child — reported on Friday.
No-one has been hospitalised locally yet with the Delta variant, which is a “cousin” of the Kappa strain that sparked the rest of the current Melbourne outbreak.
There are now 366 sites where exposure to the virus may have occurred.
The latest exposure sites to be added are Costco in the Docklands on May 30 between 3 and 4.30pm and 55 Collins Street – an office building in Melbourne’s CBD where a confirmed case attended for the whole day on May 25.
The state’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton told reporters on Friday the Delta strain has not been linked to any of the other cases in the current outbreak, which means it is not related in terms of transmission.
Prof Sutton said the B1.617.2 variant has “very high transmission potential”, and while there is little information about the severity of illness it causes, there are anecdotal reports it causes more severe illness in children.
There are 78 active COVID cases across Victoria.
On Friday, Acting Premier James Merlino said the Commonwealth would try to help Victoria meet an increased vaccine demand.
The state wants to double the number of AstraZeneca doses available to GPs, and provide an extra 100,000 Pfizer doses from mid-June for its public vaccination sites.
-with agencies
The post Five new local cases recorded in Victoria amid race to find source of COVID variant appeared first on The New Daily.
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