POSITIVE VIC CASES TRAVELLED TO NSWTwo positive coronavirus cases have travelled from Victoria to NSW on December 30 and dined at the Great Southern Hotel in Eden between 5pm and 6.30pm.NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the venue has been contacted and tracing is under way.How, or where, the pair acquired the infection remains unclear.It is understood one of the cases also ate at the Bermi’s Beachside Cafe in Bermagui between 9pm and 10pm on December 31.But Dr Chant dodged further questions on the pair of Victorian travellers and said it would be “appropriate” to refer to Victorian health officials about the source of the infection.“I think it is most appropriate that Victoria comment on their investigations,” she said.“We are working closely with them and assisting them. They did raise with us that they might have been a link with someone who had travelled to Sydney.“I can confirm that the person tested negative and they are now not pursuing that line of inquiry. “Obviously they are continuing their investigation and it’s really a matter for them to comment on.”
EXPOSURE SITES LIST GROWSMore coronavirus exposure sites have been revealed as health authorities work around the clock to track down thousands of people from across the state who may have been exposed to the coronavirus in a desperate attempt to stamp out Victoria’s new cluster.Woodlands Golf Club in Mordialloc has been named as an exposure site on two dates – December 23 and December 28.Anyone who was at the clubhouse bar on December 23 from 12.30pm until 1.30pm or December 28 from 4.40pm until 5.15pm. must be tested and isolate for 14 days from the date of exposure, the Health Department said.Anyone at the club on December 23 from 12-2pm, and December 28 from 8-5pm should get tested and isolate until they have a negative result.Wonthaggi Plaza and Costco Moorabbin have also been added to the list.
Melbourne’s new high-risk locations
Coronavirus fragments have also been detected in wastewater in Lakes Entrance on December 29, sparking fears the virus may be in the area.
BORDER CHAOS AS VICTORIANS RUSH HOMEThousands of travelers spent New Year’s Eve in their cars gridlocked and in the dark about restriction developments during a mad dash for the border to make it home before 11.59pm on Tuesday night when Victoria will once again close itself off to New South Wales.Herald Sun photographer Alex Coppel was trying to make his way home from New South Wales’ south coast overnight and did not cross the border into Victoria until 3am, forcing him to sleep in his car. Heading to Genoa on Princes Highway, he described the bottlenecked checkpoints as “an absolute joke” because he and others were left with so little time to return home, he had to leave his daughters behind.“There were tens of thousands of cars on the road,” he said.“No one knew what to do.”“There was no notice.”Mr Coppel said he clocked up 300kms in just under ten hours during his trip to the border, during which “thousands of other cars” were lined up with him without access to travel updates from Victorian health authorities.“We could not get any information,” he said.“They just gave us mixed messages,” he said.
CONTACT TRACING RUSH AFTER EIGHT CASESAfter 60 days of no new community transmissions, eight new positive cases were detected in 24 hours, sparking alarm among authorities who fear that number could soar.Three new cases were detected on Wednesday, and five more were detected on Thursday. On Thursday night more than 70 close contacts were identified, from Leongatha to Barwon Heads, who had been ordered to self-isolate.But that number is expected to balloon with thousands of Melburnians potentially exposed to the virus after three of the cases visited a busy shopping centre and a popular Melbourne beach.Anyone who has visited a growing list of “exposure sites” has been ordered to get tested and isolate for 14 days or until they get a negative result.The rapid escalation in cases prompted acting Premier Jacinta Allan to move swiftly to impose new restrictions, mandating mask wearing indoors at all times, except in people’s own homes, and halving the number of visitors allowed in a home to 15, except for children under 12 months.“We do apologise for this disruption,” Ms Allan said.“However, these difficult decisions are about protecting the community, protecting and keeping case numbers low and doing everything we can to lock in the gains we made over the course of 2020.”
Ms Allan also announced a hard border closure with NSW from 11.59pm Friday night, banning anyone from NSW coming to Victoria.“This is not an easy choice, closing borders and putting in place restrictions is never an easy choice to make, and certainly not one we wanted to make and be announcing on a day that is supposed to be about celebrating,” she said.“We certainly do apologise to people who have put plans in place, who were looking forward to having events … but this is a necessary step, it’s on the advice that we’ve received.”Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said that health teams believed the virus was brought to Victoria by a person returning from NSW.The Herald Sun understands the person did not visit Sydney’s northern beaches. Mr Weimar said the Victorian probably contracted the virus between December 17 and 19. They returned to Victoria on December 19, just before Victoria introduced a permit system for re-entry to the state.
The person then dined at the Smile Buffalo Thai restaurant in Black Rock on December 21 with contact tracing revealing links from the restaurant to the first three positive cases.The first case, a woman in her 40s from Mentone, dined at the restaurant on the same evening. She is thought to have passed it on to a family member, a woman in her 70s, who lives in Hallam.
The third case, a woman in her 40s from Mitcham, had not personally dined at the restaurant but was a close contact of someone who had.Five additional cases emerged from the same close contact group, it was revealed on Thursday.“It highlights the highly infectious nature of the virus,” Mr Weimar said.“Which is that two groups of people entirely unconnected with each other with no direct knowledge of each other in that particular cafe intersected with each other over a time window of about an hour and, it would appear, there has been a transmission of the virus,” he said.None of the positive cases became symptomatic for about six days, sparking concerns about the length of time the virus went undetected.Mr Weimar said it was concerning that about 10 days had passed since the apparent transmission date.“That means we’ve got 10 days of work to do … with the onward transmission that we will have seen,” he said.The Smile Buffalo Thai restaurant, the Holy Family Parish Church in Doveton, several stores at Fountain Gate shopping centre and the Mentone/Parkdale beach have all been marked as significant exposure sites.“We expect the number of close contacts to continue to rise over the course of the next few days as we continue contact tracing work,” Mr Weimar said.Health Minister Martin Foley said he wouldn’t rule out further restrictions being imposed as necessary in a bid to avoid a potential third wave.“This is a very serious situation that Victorians are facing, having sacrificed so much over the course of this year,” he said on Thursday.“You do not want to be caught on the wrong side of a rapidly evolving situation.“Victorians, who have sacrificed so much, are not going to go back to a situation where we faced what we did in the past winter.”
TESTING SITES OVERWHELMED Thousands of Victorians who attended coronavirus exposure sites flocked to get tested on Thursday causing sites to become overwhelmed and close their doors early.Struggling cafes and restaurants were also forced to shut as they took precautions to deep clean their venues and send staff for testing. In Parkdale, dozens of cars queued outside a pop-up testing centre, with some forced to wait for up to two hours for a voluntary test. Jan Everett, who had been at exposure site Mentone beach, was frustrated with the wait times. “The queue is actually ridiculous,” she said. “I’m sad the cases are linked to Sydney’s northern beaches. I am so tired of people breaking the rules. People have become very complacent, we need to wake up.” Leigh Pritchard, from Keysborough, woke up with symptoms but was knocked back from a Dandenong site as wait times blew out to more than three hours. “It seems reactive, there is no leadership,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like we have the systems in place to deal with the virus. This feels like any other cold, but I knew I had to do the right thing.” After growing tired of the Parkdale testing queue, he drove to Rosebud after a mate tipped him off to a shorter wait. In Glen Waverley, popular cafe Mocha Jo’s cafe voluntarily shut its doors after being announced as an exposure site. “Our little hood has been hit again,” owner Christo said. “As a precaution we are closing on Thursday and Friday. We have asked team members to get tested and we have arranged a deep clean of the restaurant. We believe this is the right thing to do.”
New restrictions in Victoria 31/12
The owner of Smile Buffalo Thai in Black Rock said she was “shocked” her restaurant had become an exposure site and subsequently had to cancel two lucrative NYE dinner sittings, costing thousands in lost revenue. Staff at Glen Waverley’s Piatella bar, next door to exposure site Century City walk, said they were taking extra cleaning precautions. Waitress Tharushi Colamba said she “panicked” when she heard the news. But at Westfield Fountain Gate, it was business as usual — even for exposure sites Kmart and Big W. Westfield cleaning employees told the Herald Sun they knew nothing of the DHHS memo issued on Wednesday night. “We haven’t been told anything, it is concerning,” one said.In Doveton, the Holy Family Parish abruptly cancelled all services for the foreseeable future.Across Melbourne, many who queued to be tested shared concerns about the potential of a third wave. Parkdale’s Lloyd Campbell said queuing was a “small price to pay” for freedom. Paul Davis from Dingley added: “It’s just peak 2020, what do you do.”PUSH TO SPEED UP VIRUS VACCINEPressure is mounting on the federal government to speed up its vaccination time frame as countries around the world begin injecting their frontline workers and the most vulnerable. The UK this week rubber-stamped the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after beginning a rollout of the Pfizer shot last month. Australia has ordered 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine — to be manufactured in Australia by CSL — but federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the first doses would not be given until March. A Morrison government backbencher told the Herald Sun that Mr Hunt was “playing chicken” with the health of Australia by not speeding up the process. “They are making a mistake not rolling out the vaccine,” he said. “The Health Minister is playing chicken with the public’s health by not rolling out the vaccine.“With already millions of doses around the world being administered and no issues, it’s time to start vaccinating, at the very least our vulnerable people.”
Q&A for Victorian COVID outbreak
Former World Health Organisation epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said the most recent outbreak and subsequent border closures made a good case for speeding up the rollout, if it was safe to do so. “Shouldn’t the government think about starting vaccination earlier?” he said. But infectious disease expert Professor Peter Collignon warned the process should not be rushed in Australia. “There are issues about safety and efficacy of the vaccine that mean the approval process in Australia is appropriate,” he said. “There are other countries in the world where the virus is running rampant that need the vaccine far more quickly than us.” Opposition leader Anthony Albanese last week also called on the government to expedite the process. A spokeswoman for the federal Department of Health said no jab would be approved until it had been deemed safe and effective by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.More than 117 million doses of possible vaccines have been purchased by Australia already.A state government spokeswoman said work was already being done to make sure the vaccine could be rolled out as soon as it was approved.
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