Fears are also growing over a superspreader event after a man who tested positive to the virus in Melbourne’s north had a “high viral load”.Acting Premier James Merlino confirmed the new case – a man in his 60s – on Tuesday morning who health authorities had linked to the Whittlesea outbreak in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.“He was identified as a contact from case number one and was urgently tested, producing the positive result,” Mr Merlino said.“He is isolating as are his household contacts.”The fifth case comes on top of the four new local cases previously revealed at a press conference on Monday afternoon.Health authorities also confirmed no new cases in hotel quarantine, and 14,892 tests in the past 24 hours.The new cases announced on Monday were a man in his 30s, a man in his 70s, a woman in her 70s and a preschool-aged child all from the same family but spread across three households.Mr Merlino said the genomic sequencing results for the outbreak had confirmed it was “closely linked” to the Wollert case that originated in South Australian hotel quarantine.He said the man in his 60s reported developing symptoms before first case in the outbreak, so it could be the missing link to connected the outbreak.“This could be a possible source case but a full investigation and interview process is under way and has to run its course,” Mr Merlino said.Chief health officer Brett Sutton said it’s might be the “missing link” but his movements still did not overlap with any of the exposure sites from the Wollert case.“His initial recollections do not overlap with any of the Wollert exposure sites, so there is no definitive link to the Wollert sites even though we know there is a genomic link,” he said.Professor Sutton said the new case had an appointment with the first case, the man in his 30s, and the transmission probably occurred on May 18.He said it was also possible there was another missing link.“We do have to commission an interview with case five on Tuesday and if there is an identified crossover with an exposure site it would be reassuring, but there may be other cases out there,” he said.Victoria Health has issued alerts for 10 exposure sites visited by an infectious person amid Melbourne’s new COVID-19 cluster. It comes as the state’s health department launches an urgent investigation into four new cases. People who attended the relevant high-risk venues between certain times have been advised to go for a coronavirus test and quarantine for 14 days. The state previously recorded 86 consecutive days without a case of community transmission.Professor Sutton said one of the new cases was likely “quite infectious” and Victorians needed to prepare themselves for more positive cases.“The viral load was likely high and with close contacts becoming positive he’s likely to be quite infectious,” he said.“We have to ready ourselves for any other positives and when there are close contacts that become positive it raises the possibility that even casual contacts could become positive.”Health Minister Martin Foley previously said the “working thesis” at the moment was they were connected to the Wollert man who returned from hotel quarantine in South Australia as the family also lived in the Whittlesea area.The health department has listed new public exposure sites on their website and those with any symptoms, such as fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, chills or sweats or a change in sense of smell or taste, have been urged to get tested immediately.Testing sites have also increased their opening hours to cope with the high demand.jack.paynter@news.com.au
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