As it happened: Melbourne lockdown to be extended as state records six new local cases; state’s regional area restrictions eased

Four of Wednesday’s six new cases are related to a family who travelled to several locations on the NSW south coast as part of a camping trip in late May.

They returned to Melbourne on May 24, reported the onset of symptoms on May 25 and tested positive for COVID-19 on May 31.

Health authorities are still working out which family member contracted the virus first and where they caught it, saying initial interviews had failed to reveal any likely crossover points with existing cases. NSW health authorities put out an alert on Tuesday night in relation to several sites visited by the family and Victoria’s Health Department also added locations linked to their trip to its list of exposure site, including three BP truck stops along the Hume Freeway at Glenrowan, Euroa and Wallan.

Two children from the family attended North Melbourne Primary School last week and it has since been closed to all students.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said another of Wednesday’s new cases was infected while dining at Brighton Beach Hotel on May 23.

The pub was initially listed as a tier-2 exposure site, but Professor Sutton said that since COVID-19 transmission had taken place, it has now been reclassified as a tier-1 location and anyone who was at the venue on May 23 form 3.09pm to 4.52pm will now need to isolate for 14 days from the date of exposure.

Professor Sutton said the venue was a well-ventilated outdoor venue where you wouldn’t normally expect transmission to occur, noting it underlined the heightened risks associated with what the World Health Organisation now calls the “Kappa” variant of COVID-19.

He said although the variant is not the most infectious, it is more infectious than anything Victoria dealt with at the beginning and in the middle of 2020.

The person who caught COVID-19 in Brighton had been staying at their home in Anglesea and a number of stores and other locations in that area were added to the exposure site list on Wednesday morning.

Another of Wednesday’s new cases has been linked to Stratton Finance, a Port Melbourne workplace with over 20 cases connected to the City of Whittlesea outbreak, but Professor Sutton said that individual had been quarantining for the entirety of their potentially infectious period.

Regional Victoria is poised to emerge from lockdown on Friday as the government outlines a range of restrictions to halt the spread of coronavirus from Melbourne hotspots.

Warnings have been issued to Bendigo residents after wastewater testing found viral fragments this week and an extra testing facility has been opened in Anglesea after an asymptomatic man visited the Surf Coast town between May 25 and 27 before later testing positive to COVID-19.

The state government has warned a final decision on reopening regional Victoria won’t be made until Thursday, following a final 24 hours of testing and contact tracing, as Melburnians face an extra seven days of lockdown.

“Victoria knows we can get through this and Victorians also know the only option available for all of us … is that we all follow the advice of our public health experts, that is our path out of this,” acting Premier James Merlino said. “The alternative cannot be considered ... We can’t let this get out of control.”

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So lockdown continues. We nearly have this outbreak under control, but are just not quite there yet.

The latest six cases announced on Wednesday captured both good and bad news. One new case has been in quarantine for their entire infectious period with no new exposure sites to add – that’s the best news. Another case moved between an exposure site in Brighton and their home in Anglesea, raising some alarm bells. A Victorian family holidayed over the border in NSW before being tested, and both parents and their two children tested positive yesterday.

One case in this family was reported to have been tested six days after symptoms began on 25 May. This is not such good news. Public heath teams must now work backwards, and across borders to see if there are other potential chains of transmission to follow up.

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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has said via his Facebook page that he hopes to return to work later this month, pending the results of scans and medical check-ups next week.

Mr Andrews said he felt for all those in Melbourne still in lockdown and told people to ‘keep fighting’.

He added in a comment about his meeting with his medical team next week.

NSW Health has identified further venues of concern, backdated to May 19, after a Victorian family visited the state’s south on a holiday before testing positive to COVID-19.

In an update on Wednesday night, the department added venues in the town of Gundagai, in the south-east, and Huskisson on the South Coast.

Times were also expanded for a number of venues first flagged on Tuesday night and further locations may be added as investigations into the family’s movements continue.

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Here is our interactive exposure sites list which now has more than 370 locations.

You can find the government’s updating list here.