As it happened: 415 new cases of COVID-19 in NSW, Victoria has 25 new cases

Another public housing tower, a market and a school have been added to Victoria’s growing list of exposure sites.

Victoria’s Department of Health listed the Pascoe Vale Road market in Glenroy as a tier-1 site where a COVID case visited and August 7 and 12.

Anyone who was at the market between 10:57am and 11:32 on the 7th, or between 3:31pm and 4:30 on the 12th must get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days.

The public housing tower at 480 Lygon Street in Carlton was listed late Sunday as a tier-2 site.

The number of venues, transport routes or apartment blocks now tops 528.

The entire list of sites can be viewed here,

That’s where we’ll leave our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic for today, thanks for joining us.

Here are the main developments:

• NSW recorded 416 new coronavirus cases and four deaths on Sunday, prompting Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant to warn the state is at “a fork in the road” as she implored residents to follow public health orders.

• In Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews said the signs were not good for Melbourne to emerge from its sixth lockdown this week, as four of the 25 new cases reported on Sunday were mystery infections.

• One million extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine, purchased from Poland, will start landing in Australia on Sunday night. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the first 530,000 shots will be made available to 20 to 39-year-olds in Sydney suburbs with the highest infection rates.

• Authorities have pleaded with Victorians to adhere to social-distancing rules after drinkers gathered in large numbers on Melbourne streets at the weekend and police moved to prevent a planned 1000-person party on the Mornington Peninsula.
• Four schools in Sydney will be closed for cleaning and contact tracing on Monday after members of their school communities tested positive for COVID-19. MLC School at Burwood reported links to two positive cases, while cases were also detected at Blacktown North Public School, Coreen School in Blacktown and Schofields Public School.

Our live coverage will restart in the morning. Stay safe.

Cafes in Mudgee and Orange, and a scout hall in Dubbo, are among venues in NSW that health authorities have linked to positive cases of COVID-19, as the virus continues to spread throughout regional parts of the state.

NSW Health said on Sunday night that anyone who attended the following venues at the times listed is a close contact and must get tested and isolate for 14 days since they were there, regardless of the result.

• Maitland, Sudania Café and Restaurant, 459 High Street on Saturday, July 31, from 8am – 2pm and Monday, August 2, from 8am – 2pm
• Cooks Hill, Darby Raj, 3/115 Darby Street on Wednesday, August 4, from 7:13pm – 7:15pm
• Dubbo, Scout Hall, 5 Welchman Street, Sunday, August 8, from 4:30pm – 5:30pm
• Dubbo, Russo’s Coffee Bar, Urban Village, 33-43 Whylandra Street, Wednesday, August 11, from 7:50am – 8am
• Mudgee, Mudgee Bakery & Cafe, 28 Market Street, Monday, August 9, from 9:10am – 9:45am
• Mudgee, Muffin Break, 72/78 Market Street, Wednesday, August 11, from 9:15am – 9:20am.

• Bathurst, Subway, 104 William Street, Saturday, August 7, from 12:50pm – 1:30pm

• Orange, Village Bakehouse, 208 Peisley Street, Sunday, August 8, from 10:50am – 12:10pm

• Orange, Byng Street Cafe, 47 Byng Street, Sunday, August 8, from 12:50pm – 1:10pm

NSW Health has also updated its list of casual contact venues of concern on its website.

Anyone who visited one of these venues at the times listed is a casual contact and must immediately get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.

A school in Sydney’s west will be closed for cleaning and contact tracing on Monday after a member of the school community tested positive to COVID-19.

The NSW Department of Education said close contacts of the case at Blacktown North Public School had been notified and asked to self-isolate.

The department requested all staff and students self-isolate until they received further advice. It said the Blacktown North Out of School Hour Care would not be operating during this time.

Two other Sydney schools reported people testing positive for coronavirus today. Coreen school in Blacktown and Schofields public school both said members of their school community tested positive for COVID-19.

NSW Health said anyone who has been unwell or developed symptoms such as a fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, loss of smell/taste, muscle/joint pains, diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting and/or extreme tiredness should be tested at one of the state’s COVID-19 testing clinics.

Victorian authorities are preparing pop-up testing and vaccine sites in St Kilda East after two new cases emerged in the area this weekend.

A mother and her son who live in the same household were announced as part of Sunday’s 25 cases. They are members of the tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community.

Health officials have been in meetings with local community leaders since Saturday. Community leaders were told the two new cases may have attended a large gathering in recent days, according to multiple local sources speaking confidentially to detail the early stages of the investigations.

There have been reports of minyans - prayer gatherings with a minimum of 10 people - being held during Victoria’s lockdown. However, the gathering being investigated as an exposure site was not a prayer meeting.

The Rabbinical Council of Victoria has called on community members to follow public health rules and the Jewish Community Council of Victorian condemned the prayer gatherings.

During last year’s second wave police raided multiple illegal prayer meetings held by members of Melbourne’s orthodox community.

Authorities are focussed on ensuring as many members of the community as possible come forward for testing.