Victoria has recorded four new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the state's health department said.
People queue for a Covid-19 test in Melbourne on May 27, 2021. Photo: AFP / William West
Acting Premier James Merlino said the four new cases were all linked to this week's outbreak in Melbourne's north, which has grown to 30 cases.
Merlino has asked the Commonwealth for 160 Australian Defence Force staff to help with door-to-door visits as health officials monitor close contacts and cases.
Victoria Covid-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar said authorities were particularly concerned about the potential spread of the virus at five exposure sites:
- The Sporting Globe at 590 Main Street, Mordialloc between 6.15pm and 9.45pm on Sunday, 23 May
- Three Monkeys Bar at 210 Chapel Street, Prahran between 9.10pm and 11pm on Saturday, 22 May
- Somewhere Bar at 181 Chapel Street, Prahran between 10.30pm and 1am on Saturday, 22 May
- The Palace Hotel, 505-507 City Road, South Melbourne between 5.45 and 6.45pm on Friday, 21 May
- The Local on Bay Street in Port Melbourne between 1.30pm and 3.30pm on Friday, 21 May
Weimar said authorities had already confirmed one case contracted the virus at the Sporting Globe in Mordialloc on 23 May.
"We believe they caught the infection then, they were confirmed positive in yesterday's numbers," Weimar said.
"We now see the significant risk in particular at those social venues, the bars and clubs."
There were 47,462 test results received, breaking the previous record of 42,000.
There were 17,223 vaccine doses administered through state-run sites - also a record for the state and up on 12,677 on Wednesday and 15,858 on Tuesday.
There are now more than 15,000 primary and secondary contacts who have been asked to isolate.
Of those, 1452 people have been identified as primary close contacts associated with the City of Whittlesea outbreak, and the Port Melbourne outbreak.
Weimar said there had been "literally hundreds" of negative test results from people among those close contacts, including 100 people at Port Melbourne business Stratton Finance.
In New Zealand, 5000 people who have arrived from Victoria since the start of the outbreak were being told to self-isolate until they can get tested, and receive a negative result.
About 500 could not be reached by email and are being followed up with phonecalls and texts.
New Zealand's Ministry of Health said today the variant of Covid-19 being found in Melbourne is the B.1.617.1 variant, first reported in India and considered more infectious than the original variant.
Sutton warns 'it's not over yet'
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said it was too early to draw any conclusions from today's case numbers.
"We have to see how the days ahead play out," he said.
"You really never know what to expect. Four [cases] is better than 10.
"It is not over yet. We can get 10 tomorrow, 20 tomorrow.
"We absolutely have to recognise that there are thousands and thousands of close contacts still to go through the incubation period, who could become symptomatic."
Victoria entered a seven-day "circuit-breaker" lockdown at midnight.
Public health students have been asked to bolster the state's contact tracing ranks.
In an email to students, the University of Melbourne's School of Population and Global Health asked for expressions of interest from those with medical, nursing and allied health expertise to join the state's outbreak-fighting efforts.
"We are in the midst of a B.1.617 Covid-19 (strain originally from India) outbreak with a doubling time of 48 hours," the email said.
It explained that the head of the North Eastern Public Health Unit had made "an urgent call out for medical, nursing and allied health students to help with contact tracing".
-ABC
