Benjamin Millar
Victoria will remain under lockdown beyond this Thursday’s already extended deadline as mystery COVID-19 cases continue to appear across Melbourne’s western and northern suburbs.
Health officials were hatching out the finer details of the extended restrictions on Monday, after 73 new locally acquired cases were recorded.
Victoria recorded 92 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the highest number of cases recorded in a single day since 110 on September 2 last year.
Of the hundreds of cases still active in the community, 23 cases are in Melton and one in Moorabool.
Bunnings Melton and Dan Murphy’s at Woodgrove Shopping Centre have been added as tier 2 COVID-19 exposure sites – anyone who attended these locations during the exposure period on August 24 must get tested urgently and isolate until returning a negative result.
Subway at Woodgrove Shopping Centre and ChemMart Pharmacy at 383-385 High Street Melton have also been added as tier 2 exposure sites for August 20.
Woolworths also issued a warning that a confirmed case was present in the Woolworths Woodgrove store on August 20, 22 and 25.
“As a food retailer, we already have very high standards of cleaning and hygiene in place, and in addition to these high cleaning standards the store had a deep clean,” it stated.
Health Minister Martin Foley said on Monday that while numbers are stabilising, he couldn’t say if Victoria would be able to get back to zero cases.
“The situation has plateaued and the measures are kicking in,” he said.
“The strategy is the national cabinet agreed position that when we get to 70 per cent vaccination, when we get to 80 per cent, our options multiply.
“Getting vaccinated is the way out of this pandemic.”
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said that more than three quarters of the active cases are people aged 40 and under.
“That is not the demographic spread in our community,” he said.
“That is the effect of vaccination, that is telling a really promising story.”
