Victoria recorded two new local COVID cases and found a possible source of delta clusters

Acting Prime Minister James Merlino said Victoria is on track to ease restrictions on Friday, with only two more cases detected in the state’s coronavirus outbreak.

Both new cases are associated with the current epidemic.

One is an epidemic-related child in West Melbourne and the other is a close contact with the case at Arcare Maidstone.

The child diagnosed yesterday is a student at North Melbourne Elementary School, but in a different grade than the two previous cases identified at school.

Many contacts at this school are currently upgrading from Tier 2 to Tier 1. That is, they must be inspected and quarantined for 14 days.

The COVID-19 Vaccine Hub at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center is also listed as a Tier 3 exposure site between 3:15 pm and 4 pm on June 7.

Jeroen Weimar, commander of COVID-19 compliance in Victoria, said yesterday that positive patients attended the vaccine center.

According to Weimar, the person went to the vaccine center for a COVID test, but was told to leave and quarantine.

Weimar said he was confident that there was no further risk to the public.

The advice for Tier 3 sites is to monitor the symptoms.

Sources that may have been found in the delta outbreak

Merlino said one of the “missing pieces” of the puzzle was the origin of the delta outbreak, and authorities were probably doing genomic sequencing to identify the source in hotel quarantine.

“Today we can see that we have found a match between this cluster and the returning travelers who entered the hotel quarantine in Melbourne on May 8th,” he said.

Returnees arrived in Melbourne from Sri Lanka and immediately tested positive for COVID-19.

Deputy Minister of Emergency Services Danny Pearson provided the following timeline:

• May 8: A traveler arrives from Sri Lanka and tests positive
• May 9: He moved from the Novotel Ibis Quarantine Hotel to the Holiday Inn Health Hotel.
• May 23: Completed 14-day hotel quarantine and released

Pearson said 24 people on the same plane as the man tested negative for the coronavirus, and others who were quarantined at the same hotel as the man were not tested positive for the Delta strain. ..

“We continue to review CCTV and incident logs, but so far we can also see that the infection control protocol and other violations of infections in the hotel have not been reported or are unclear. “Pearson said. ..

Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Chen said health officials are investigating four possible scenarios that could explain how men relate to the current epidemic.

• A man infected another passenger on a plane from Sri Lanka
• A man infected the virus after being released from quarantine
• Infection occurs in staff transporting men
• The man infected another resident of the quarantine hotel for some reason

Professor Chen said the man was properly inspected and cleared when he left the hotel quarantine.

“But we are still tracking this man’s post-discharge contact and then confirming that he is free of infection,” he said.

Twelve residents on the same floor as the quarantined man also returned a negative test before being released, at least 10 of whom were negative with a cotton swab after discharge.

Professor Chen said the discovery of a delta source in Victoria also revealed a series of possible outbreaks in West Melbourne.

“We have been working on a possible scenario in which a family in Jervis Bay was the first case of this epidemic,” he said.

The results reported today were detected in 22,814 tests processed on Monday, with 21,192 vaccinations at state-owned facilities by the state.

Victoria is “on track” to ease restrictions

The blockade in Melbourne is expected to end Thursday at 11:59 pm, and Mr Merrino said today that authorities are “on track” to announce the relaxation of the restrictions.

“Our contact tracking team did exactly what we needed. They found, tracked, and quarantined the case,” he said.

“Thanks to their great work, we are planning to announce this weekend. As we have planned, we will implement further deregulation in the Victoria region and prudent deregulation in Melbourne. is”

“Nothing about today,” Merlino said, changed these plans.

However, in the provinces of Victoria and Melbourne, different travel restrictions will continue to apply over the long weekends.

“There is a very good reason for this. We want to drive it into the ground and ensure that it is not at risk of spreading to the provinces of Victoria,” said Acting Prime Minister.

Health officials recorded 11 new cases on Sunday, many of whom were already in quarantine, all associated with known cases.

The West Melbourne cluster case involved several children, but Professor Fiona Russell of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Melbourne said there was no need to rush to vaccinate the children.

“While most front-line people are not vaccinated, what are the benefits and risks of a global shortage of vaccines? You need to take proper steps regarding the relationship. “

“At some point in the future, children may need to be vaccinated, but they haven’t reached that point yet.”

Several Melbourne shops have been added to the list of over 300 exposed sites Includes Southbank IGA supermarket and 7-Eleven stores in Yarraville and Maribianon..

Recent “encouraging” cases

Victoria’s Minister of Tourism and Major Events Martin Pakula said there were positive signs before a decision was made later this week on whether Melbourne’s blockade would be eased.

“Today’s numbers are encouraging. Yesterday’s numbers may seem at face value because everything was related, but they are more encouraging,” he said.

Pakura said he hopes the crowd will be allowed in the AFL match in Melbourne when the current lockdown is eased.

“I don’t expect it to return to 85%. [capacity] Or of that nature, I hope the AFL match in Victoria will come back sooner or later, “he said.