The new infections came from more than 32,000 tests.All cases were linked to the current outbreaks and were in quarantine for their entire infectious period, the health department confirmed.While this is promising news on Saturday there were concerns after a “strong new” detection of traces of Covid-19 in the sewage of Glenroy in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton said the detections came from wastewater samples taken on July 21 and 22 and affected the suburbs of Glenroy, Hadfield, Oak Park and Pascoe Vale.He also said health authorities were aware of some residents living in those areas who had recently returned from interstate virus hot spots.“We know some red zone permit holders have returned to those areas and the virus may have returned with them,” Mr Sutton told reporters on Saturday afternoon.“So we ask everyone that they will need to continue to be tested across Victoria. “But if you are symptomatic and in those particular postcodes we absolutely encourage you to be tested.”The outbreak in Victoria has sent the state into its fifth lockdown since the pandemic began. But scores of Melbournians ignored the stay-at-home rules and attended an anti-lockdown protest on Saturday, drawing a sharp rebuke from Mr Sutton.“I love freedom. Who doesn’t love freedom?” he tweeted on Saturday night.“I want freedom from being amongst the over 4 million official (and likely 10 million actual) COVID deaths globally … and freedom from being amongst the over 13 million current active cases. Or millions of current Long COVID cases.”“Long COVID doesn’t make you free – debilitating fatigue, ongoing shortness of breath, neurological and psychiatric symptoms for weeks to months.“We’ve avoided a huge potential burden of illness in Australia but the 30,000 cases we’ve had still represents so much suffering.”On Saturday, the state announced it had administered more than three million vaccine shots.
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