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Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, says that in a pandemic, a week feels like a billion years. For 20 days an epidemiological eternity the viral strain that prompted Victoria’s latest lockdown moved freely in our community, hidden from view.
A man who managed to travel through India without getting sick somehow came into contact with the virulent B.1.617.1 strain while quarantining in an Adelaide hotel room. Although he repeatedly tested negative for the virus, he was carrying it when he checked out on May 4, the day he flew home to Melbourne.
People queue to receive their COVID-19 vaccinations at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building.
May 28, 2021 â 5.55pm
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The Morrison government is set to formally approve a $200 million-plus, purpose built quarantine facility for Melbourne to supplement hotel quarantine, with Lindsay Foxâs Avalon Airport site firming as the frontrunner for a model that could be expanded across the country.
But the federal government is resisting a Queensland proposal for a privately-funded camp in Toowoomba, insisting that any purpose-built state site needs to meet three strict criteria.
Lindsay Fox.Â
Alex Ellinghausen
Victoriaâs latest outbreak stems from the leak of the virus from a hotel in South Australia. It represents the 17th such leak across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in the past six months, sparking criticism that a federal overhaul of the hotel quarantine system has been too slow.
A village-style quarantine hub in Victoria is close to being approved by the Federal Government, in a new bid to increase the amount of overseas travellers entering Australia.
The Prime Minister is understood to be very close to formally approving a proposal put forward by Victoria for the new village, which will be funded by both the state and Federal Governments.
The facility will be run by state authorities however and will be built on the provision that it adds to existing quarantine programs, rather than replacing them.
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Aerial shot of the paddocks surrounding Avalon Airport, where 800 hectares of unused land currently sits. (Google Maps)
In a late alert on Friday evening, the Health Department said the details of the 20 locations had been urgently added to the state’s growing list of exposure sites and that it was working with the person’s employer to track down contacts.
It comes after health authorities identified five bars and pubs as being exposure sites of significant concern when revealing a new COVID-19 case in Melbourne had caught the virus on a night out.
“If you have been to those locations you have been out partying with somebody who was COVID-positive at the same time, with you in that space,” COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said on Friday. People who were at the venues should get tested and isolate, he said.