Yahoo News Victoria Covid news update: three new cases after arrival of positive travellers from NSW
Three new cases of Covid-19 have emerged in Victoria after a removalist from New South Wales, and two members of a family who returned from Sydney last week tested positive.
The first case, reported early on Monday by state health minister Martin Foley, is a removalist who travelled from Sydney to Melbourne on 8 July. The moving crew delivered furniture to a home in the Whittlesea local government area, before picking up furniture in a home in the Maribyrnong local government area, and arriving in South Australia in the early hours of 9 July.
The removalist was alerted when he reached South Australia that he was a close contact of another Covid-19 case, and subsequently tested positive when he returned to Sydney.
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Victoria’s Covid commander, Jeroen Weimar, said a second member of the crew may have tested positive but it was not yet confirmed as of Monday afternoon.
Weimar said conversations were ongoing with the crew and their employer about where the removalists may have visited while in Victoria, and no exposure sites had yet been announced. He said the protocols put in place by their employer meant they stayed in their cabin rather than staying in accommodation overnight.
The family moving into the Whittlesea home from Sydney had been isolating since arriving as required by Victoria’s red zone permit. They all tested negative on 9 July.
Health officials were in the process of testing and interviewing the second family to determine potential exposure sites in the event they test positive.
The other two cases were two members of a family of four from the City of Hume local government area who returned from Sydney. Three members returned on 4 July, and the fourth returned by car on 8 July.
All members of the family initially tested negative shortly after their arrival, but two became symptomatic yesterday and have tested positive.
The family entered the state on red zone permits, and have been isolating, but interviews are under way to determine if there were any close contacts upon arrival.
Weimar said he was not concerned about transmission on the 4 July flight given they had initially tested negative, and said people returning from Sydney on that flight would also be isolating under Victoria’s red zone permit system.
“This is why we have permits for red zone arrivals. This is a risk that we as Victorians are managing for people to come home. They represent some risk because they have arrived here and clearly at least two members have become infectious,” he said.
“If they have maintained their full isolation and have not been outside at all, had contact with anybody, then that will be a very good outcome and that will represent a low risk and low exposure sites.”
It is the third and fourth time a Covid-19 case has arrived in Victoria from the Bondi outbreak in New South Wales, after the Sandringham dry cleaner, and the Virgin flight crew. Of those cases, there are just two active cases and eight close contacts remaining.
There have been 8,019 active red zone permits issued in Victoria, with 744 issued in the past 24 hours.
