Melissa Cunningham, Ashleigh McMillan, David Estcourt19:08, May 24 2021
Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
Covid-19 testing takes place at a pop-up clinic in Melbourne, Australia as four new cases announced and there’s a hunt for a missing link.
The confirmation of four new Covid-19 cases in Melbourne has sent thousands of people in Australia into isolation for two weeks as authorities concede there may be a missing link between the new outbreak and a positive case in the city a fortnight ago. Highpoint Shopping Centre in Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s west and a swim school in the northern suburb of Bundoora have been added to the list of primary exposure sites after two men, a woman and a child from the Whittlesea area in the city’s outer north tested positive to coronavirus.
Date Time
COVID-19 cases in City of Whittlesea
A Victorian Government public health response is underway after four cases of COVID-19 were found in two households in the City of Whittlesea.
Exposure sites have been added to the Victorian Government’s website:
Jump! Swim School at 4/37 The Concord in Bundoora on 21 May between the hours of 8.55am and 10.15am. If you have visited this site, you will need to get tested and isolate for 14 days.
Highpoint Shopping Centre on 20 May from 5pm to 8pm. If you have visited this site, you will need to get tested and isolate until further notice.
By David Estcourt
The Victorian boss of the Australian Medical Association says authoritiesâ current concerns are that the string of COVID-19 cases in Melbourneâs northern suburbs have spread to as-yet undiscovered locations throughout the city.
âThe worry is of course that it spread elsewhere in Melbourne,â Julian Rait told the
Today show. âThereâs a risk there might be multiple cases of course at this stage. Thatâs what the government I am sure is concerned about.â
Australian Medical Association Victoria president Julian Rait.
Credit:Justin McManus
Dr Rait said the recent outbreak reiterated the need for ongoing investment in public health services, which, despite the governmentâs efforts to scale up in the last 12 months, required years of investment.
Melissa Cunningham10:04, May 25 2021
Victorian contact tracers are working to identify missing links in a growing coronavirus cluster in Melbourne’s northern suburbs as Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton warns that one of the infected people had been moving around the community with a high viral load. Epidemiologists said one or more undetected cases could have spread the virus beyond the northern suburbs, but Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley did not seek to tighten restrictions on Monday or declare a lockdown. The trans-Tasman bubble remains open for now and the New Zealand Ministry of Health is monitoring the situation. The confirmation of the new Covid-19 cases among four family members spread over three households in Melbourne’s outer north on Monday (local time) sent thousands of people into isolation after Highpoint Shopping Centre and a Bundoora swimming school were listed as exposure sites.