Victorians are facing a return of tougher restrictions as leaders reassure the state they are “on the heels” of cases stemming from people who breached the conditions of their travel from New South Wales.
In a late-night announcement, the Victorian government declared masks would be mandatory in all indoor settings again, including high schools and workplaces.
It’s looking likely that there will be restrictions on crowds and home visitors announced before the weekend.
“As we’ve always done in Victoria, we will take fast and aggressive action as we think it’s appropriate,” said Jeroen Weimer, Victoria’s COVID-19 response commander.
The state’s run of zero-case ‘donut days’ was well and truly over by Wednesday night as 11 Victorians tested positive to coronavirus and exposure sites had blown out to over 70.
The ABC reported just before 7am that sources had suggested at least another 10 cases would be added to the tally on Thursday.
NSW has also identified 19 more exposure sites including a petrol station and public transport routes.
South Australia registered another potential one, also linked to the removalists who travelled from NSW to SA via Victoria, and warned that more rules could be introduced.
Things are changing quickly. Here’s what we know so far about rule changes and cases, as of early Thursday morning:
Exposure sites across Victoria
There are 11 new cases in Victoria – but that number is expected to grow, as it has been confirmed that infected people visited a number of busy locations including Flinders Street Station.
A teacher from Bacchus Marsh Primary School, west of Melbourne, is among the cases. He lives at Barwon Heads, on the Bellarine Peninsula near Geelong.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar has confirmed the infected teacher attended a staff day on Monday but had no contact with students on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Staff have been told to self-isolate and get tested, while the school’s Woodlea and Maddingley campuses will be closed for the rest of the week.
Barwon Heads Primary School has also been closed until further notice and Barwon Heads Football and Netball Club is listed as as a ‘Tier 1’ exposure site.
Other sites of concern in the Geelong area include the Officeworks in Waurn Ponds and the APCO service station in Highton, both listed as ‘Tier 2’ sites.
It’s believed the teacher contracted the virus after attending an AFL match between Carlton and Geelong at the MCG on Saturday with an infected friend who lives at the locked-down Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong.
The friend, a man aged in his 60s, was one of four residents of the apartment to test positive on Wednesday.
He also infected his parents, aged 89 and 90, who live in Craigieburn.
The outbreak at the apartments is linked to a NSW removalist crew who did a pick up at the complex on Thursday while infectious.
The three removalists, two of whom have tested positive, weren’t wearing masks while at the apartments – in breach of their border permit.
Another new case is a man in his 30s who attended Coles Craigieburn at the same time as a member of a family who recently returned from Sydney infected with COVID-19.
The family of four from Melbourne’s northwest were required to self-isolate at home as red zone permit arrivals, but one visited the Coles and a Metro petrol station in Broadmeadows.
All have now tested positive, with the fourth infection confirmed on Wednesday.
Mr Weimar said the next two days would be critical to stamp out the outbreaks.
“We are right on the heels of this particular outbreak,” he said on Wednesday.
As well as in regional areas, there are exposure sites across Melbourne and also over the NSW-Victorian border at Albury where the infected removalists stopped for fuel.
New ‘Tier 1 sites’ in Melbourne include a number of shops in the Bundoora DFO, routes 70 and 82 trams, and a sporting club and takeaway shops in Craigieburn.
Anyone who visited a ‘Tier 1’ site during the exposure period must quarantine for 14 days.
- Read the full list of exposure sites, here
Longer lockdown in Sydney
The lockdown of Greater Sydney and surrounds has been extended by at least two weeks as the state recorded 97 new local COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.
At least 31 of the cases had been circulating in the community while infectious.
New exposure sites in NSW include:
- D&M Excavations in Greenacre Thursday 1 July to Tuesday 13 July;
- Hanson Concrete Australia in Greenacre, Thursday 1 July to Tuesday 13 July;
- Shell Coles Express, South Gundagai, on Thursday 8 July, 1:00am to 1:30am;
- Shell in Jindera on Saturday 10 July, 11:15am to 11:45am;
- 309 bus route at various times on July 6 and 7.
The stay-at-home provisions were scheduled to end on Friday but will now remain in place until at least July 30.
It means more than five million people will endure at least five weeks of lockdown. Restriction settings across regional NSW remain unchanged.
There are currently 20 COVID-19 patients in NSW in intensive care, with four ventilated.
Two people have died – a man in his 70s and a woman in her 90s –taking the NSW tally to 58 and the national death toll to 912 since the pandemic began last year.
- Click here for the full list of NSW exposure sites
QR complacency could lead to tighter restrictions in SA
A petrol station in regional South Australia linked to the virus-infected removalists is a potential third COVID-19 exposure site.
Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Emily Kirkpatrick says the site is still being pinpointed, but it’s now believed the removalists stopped for rest and fuel after crossing into SA from Victoria early on Friday, July 9.
Dr Kirkpatrck said there had been no confirmed local coronavirus cases linked to the two sites of concern already identified, a service station and a cafe at Tailem Bend, about 100 kilometres east of Adelaide, where the removalists stopped on their return journey.
About 118 people are currently in isolation as close or casual contacts from the two locations.
SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said there had only been 25 QR code check-ins at the site during the time of concern, compared to 76 credit card transactions.
He said SA Health and police would meet on Thursday to discuss possibly tightening local virus restrictions and the use, or lack thereof, of QR codes would factor into their decision.
“I’m giving people due warning that we are actively considering restrictions for South Australia,” Mr Stevens said.
“It is not something we want to do but given what we are facing in Victoria and NSW, we are making decisions that will be in the best interests of South Australia.”
WA tightens border to NSW and Victoria
Western Australia is set to lock out people from NSW for at least another two months as Sydney deals with a worsening coronavirus outbreak, while Victorians must now quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.
“We have to assume that this is the more contagious Delta variant which requires our immediate action,” WA Police chief Chris Dawson said.
“The list of exposures sites in Victoria is growing and so is our concern and the risk to Western Australians.”
Mr Dawson acknowledged some passengers aboard flights from Melbourne would be caught unaware by the sudden change.
Thursday night’s AFL game between Geelong and Fremantle at Optus Stadium is set to go ahead with no crowd restrictions, with the Cats to be placed under strict isolation protocols upon landing in Perth on Wednesday.
WA this week further tightened exemptions for travellers from NSW, including those granted on compassionate grounds.
Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said that would remain the case for “at least two months and possibly more”.
He said people wanting to get back from NSW had been given ample time to do so before the restrictions were tightened.
“Obviously if you have very good reason to come back to WA, there might be a very ill family member or a spouse who’s having a baby or whatever the case may be, then obviously there are good circumstances,” he told Perth radio 6PR.
“But this is not the time to go over for a holiday in NSW, or to go over for work.”
WA recorded no new coronavirus cases on Wednesday.
Nine active cases are being monitored, including a returned overseas traveller and a maritime worker who are both in a stable condition in hospital.
A recent four-day lockdown in Perth and the Peel region was traced to a woman who contracted the highly transmissible Delta variant while holidaying in Sydney.
-with AAP
The post Mask rules return for Victoria as exposure sites grow across states appeared first on The New Daily.
**Know benefits of facebook marketing --http://bit.ly/2RgChw3