No new local cases of COVID-19 were detected in Victoria on Tuesday, the Department of Health has confirmed.One interstate case, a man from Wollert who’s positive test sparked the latest health scare, was added to the state’s tally.The department is still awaiting results of genomic testing to determine where the man — who spent two weeks in hotel quarantine in South Australia before returning to Victoria — contracted the virus.More than 20,000 people got tested and 8146 vaccines were administrated in the past 24 hours. Health Minister Martin Foley will front the media at 10.15am.Authorities have not changed Victoria’s COVID restrictions, with the relaxed rules introduced on April 9 still in place.Masks are compulsory in taxis, ride shares, on public transport, flights and while visiting an airport, hospital or care facility.Hundreds of Victorians have been ordered to isolate after the man returned a positive test in Melbourne.Train passengers were on Tuesday night also ordered into isolation, after the Health Department revealed the infected man from Wollert in Melbourne’s north travelled on public transport.Authorities were scrambling to determine whether commuters may have been exposed to the virus last week.Anyone who caught the 5.28pm Craigieburn to Southern Cross service on Friday, May 7, or the 10.20pm Flinders Street to Craigieburn service on the same night, must get tested and isolate immediately.Both services have been deemed a Tier 2 exposure site by the Health Department.“If you were on this service – in any carriage, and alighting and departing at any station – follow the health advice,” a statement reads.Long queues were forming in the northern suburbs on Wednesday morning as residents scrambled to get tested for the virus.Cars waiting in line at a testing site at 4Cyte Pathology in Epping formed a growing queue down Childs Rd.Lalor resident Maria, 43, who decided to get tested to protect her sick and elderly father, said she had been waiting in line “for a while”.“I should have come yesterday,” she said.“I was going to come anyway but the alerts for these areas prompted me to come sooner.” Maria said she had some COVID-like symptoms and wanted to rule out coronavirus.A traffic control worker coordinating cars at the small drive-through site told the Herald Sun it was “so busy”.“Our staff are working all over the city to coordinate these centres,” he said. “People are cooperating but it is a lot.”As about 40 cars built up on the road and inside the testing site, Epping local Murat Ates, 40, said he was prepared to wait in line to take precautions for his young family.Mr Ates said health authorities’ alert for the Epping area on Tuesday prompted him to be tested because he had experienced flu-like symptoms.“The whole area should just be careful and get tested, that’s why I’m here,” he said.The locals’ concerns come after the Health Department on Tuesday warned hundreds of Epping, Altona North and CBD residents to get tested.Flinders Street, Southern Cross and Craigieburn stations have all been deemed Tier 3 exposure sites, meaning anyone who was at any of these stations on May 7 must monitor for COVID symptoms.States and territories have been quick to hit Victorian travellers with new requirements after recording the shock new case.Alerts were also issued on Tuesday for exposure sites in Melbourne’s CBD, Epping and Altona North between Thursday and Saturday last week. Health investigators believe the man, aged in his 30s, was infected while in hotel quarantine at The Playford Hotel.A patient in an adjacent hotel room on May 4 tested positive to COVID-19 — the same day the man was released from his 14 days of isolation and flew to Melbourne.He went home to Wollert in the northern suburbs but began feeling unwell on May 8. He took a coronavirus test on Monday and returned a positive result on Tuesday.Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton said it was unlikely the man was infectious during his first two days in Victoria.COVID exposure sitesPassengers on his May 4 flight do not have to isolate.“The flight is unlikely to be something to chase up. The fourth is not a day that we expect him to be infectious,” Prof Sutton said.“But, with variants of concern and the evolution of the virus all the time, we have to be alive to the possibility.”Genomic testing is expected to confirm the source of the man’s infection within 48 hours. He flew from coronavirus-ravaged India, via the Maldives and Singapore, before landing in Adelaide.But South Australian chief health officer Nicola Spurrier said the man tested negative to COVID-19 on days one, five and 13 of his quarantine.Although health authorities were working on the presumption the virus may have been passed within Victoria, Prof Sutton said negative tests from the man’s three relatives were an “encouraging sign”.“It is an early encouraging sign that the household contacts have tested negative, on the basis that he has been home with them and symptomatic from the 8th (of May), and probably infectious from the 6th,’’ he said.Four Tier 1 exposure sites were announced, and people who had been there in the specified period must be tested and isolate immediately.Melbourne CBD business Citadel Health was cleared to reopen Tuesday afternoon after the negative test by a relative of the man, who visited the Collins St premises.Curry Vault Indian Restaurant and Bar owner Kailash Sharma, whose city eatery was named a tier-1 exposure site, said he was “devastated”.COVID-positive man’s Melbourne movementsMr Sharma said his business had lost more than $100,000 last year.“We are closed for a deep clean until 10pm tonight and all affected staff have self-isolated,” he said on Tuesday.“It’s very concerning, it’s such a terrible feeling when innocent people are caught up in this.”Prof Sutton said the latest case served as a reminder to renew safe practices and continue using QR codes.He warned vaccines would not slow the spread of local COVID-19 outbreaks until 60-70 per cent of the population was vaccinated, meaning measures such as lockdowns remained a defence for future clusters.“The government has had months to prepare for this sort of scenario,” opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said. “It’s critical that we have contact tracing in place otherwise the entire state will be at risk of yet another lockdown.” Victoria had gone 73 days without a locally acquired case.Travellers arriving in NSW from Melbourne will now need to complete a declaration form confirming they have not attended a public exposure site.
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