Health officials are scrambling to contact visitors to the van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery in Canberra after an infected Sydney man visited the nation’s capital on Monday.The man from Sydney’s northwest has low virus levels but NSW Health has been unable to rule out the 40-year-old from being Covid-19 positive when he visited Canberra, ACT Health said in a statement.The man spent almost two hours at the National Gallery of Australia at Parkes visiting the Botticelli and van Gogh exhibitions as well as visiting the gift shop.He was at the tourist attraction from midday until 1.45pm.An hour later he attended Via Dolce Pasticceria in Canberra’s CBD where he stayed from 2.45pm until 3.15pm.“In addition, if you were at the National Gallery of Australia, including the main gift shop, from 12-2pm on Monday 14 June, you must be vigilant for even the mildest of Covid-19 symptoms, immediately get tested and isolate until a negative test is received,” ACT Health warned.“Investigations and contact tracing is underway this morning. As part of this, ACT Health will be looking at Check In CBR and other ticketing data to help identify people who were at the venues above.ACT Health said it had commissioned extra staff at testing clinics and would monitor demand and respond as needed.The Covid outbreak in Sydney came as Melbourne recorded one new case in the past 24 hours to Friday, and lifted a string of restrictions at 11.59pm on Thursday, including the reopening of gyms and changes to home visits and mask rules. It follows Victoria’s controversial two-week lockdown.The latest twist in the Sydney cluster came after a Bondi health food store, a women’s retail store and a bowling club joined a growing list of exposure venues in Sydney linked to an outbreak of coronavirus in the eastern suburbs.NED-3619-AstraZeneca blood clots-What we knowAuthorities announced on Thursday afternoon that four people had tested positive for the virus over the past day, with three in the city’s east and one in its northwest.Two of the cases are a married couple, including a man who works as a limousine driver for international flight crews. It has been confirmed he is carrying the highly contagious Deltra strain.Another is a woman in her 70s, who is believed to have contracted the virus when visiting the Belle Cafe in Vaucluse on June 13, where the limousine driver had been on June 11 and 12.The fourth case is a man from Baulkham Hills, who authorities say has a low viral load; investigations as to whether his test was a false positive are ongoing. He is the case which visited Canberra while unknowingly infectious.STATE OF PLAY IN VICTORIAVictoria recorded one new locally acquired Covid-19 case on Friday.The state’s health department announced one new local case about 9am, along with one new infection in hotel quarantine.In a promising sign, the health department said the local case was a “primary close contact of an existing case”.The number of active cases in Victoria is 54, the same number as Thursday.The new cases came from 35,252 test results, while 16,710 vaccine doses were also administered in the past 24 hours.It came as the state’s health department confirmed a Covid-19 patient had been transferred to intensive care on Thursday – the first time a positive case had been in ICU since May 27.There are six other Covid patients in hospital receiving care, the health department said.Victoria’s coronavirus restrictions were eased overnight, with the border between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria removed, along with the 25km metro travel limit.Masks are no longer required outdoors but are still be recommended when social distancing of 1.5m couldn’t be maintained.Other restrictions eased include two visitors plus dependants per day being permitted to gather inside private homes in Melbourne and up to five people plus dependants in regional Victoria.Twenty people can gather outside in Melbourne and 50 in regional Victoria.Gyms can also open across Melbourne with density limits and CovidSafe plans in place, with hair and beauty services now able to operate without masks during service.
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