Victoria’s Chief Health Officer says Victoria will have to brace for “further exposure sites” and potentially more positive cases after four family members across two households tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday.
Professor Brett Sutton said one of the cases had a high viral load and was “likely to be quite infectious”,with three other family members already testing positive.
“Obviously we have the positives and they were the immediate close contacts,and there were not a huge number of close contacts,but we have to go through that interview and re-interview process to identify anyone else,” he told a press conference this afternoon.
“We have to ready ourselves for any other positives and when there are close contacts who do become positive,you know,that raises the possibility that even casual contacts could become positive as well.”
Professor Sutton said he believed the child who has tested positive was part of a swimming class at the Jump! Swimming School on May 21.
He said health authorities do not know yet how many close contacts were at the premises when the positive case was there. None of the four new cases have been hospitalised.
Health authorities are expecting to receive results from genomic testing - which will try and link the new cases to the positive Wollert man who had also visited Epping while infectious - by tomorrow.
Professor Sutton said the state was working on a hypothesis of local transmission occurring in Melbourne’s northern suburbs,with a special focus on the City of Whittlesea where the COVID-positive family lives.
He said the state “will always be at risk until we have high vaccination coverage” and as such it was important to follow the basic rules:wear masks,get tested and get vaccinated if you can.
Health Minister Martin Foley cautioned against complacency. “After nearly three months of no community transmission,a degree of complacency having settled in,this is a reminder to all Victorians ... this is not over,” Mr Foley said.
“We are a long way from herd immunity in Victoria and Australia.”