Coronavirus update for Victoria - 6 June 2021

Victoria was notified of eight new cases of coronavirus yesterday.

Two are locally acquired cases linked to the current outbreak. Six new cases were acquired overseas in returned international travellers in hotel quarantine.

There were two COVID-19 cases in hospital in Victoria yesterday.

There are 85 active cases in Victoria, 70 are locally acquired and 15 are overseas acquired cases. The total number of confirmed cases in Victoria since the beginning of the pandemic is 20,627.

Update: Current restrictions

Victoria's restrictions remain in force in metropolitan Melbourne and have been eased in regional Victoria.

For people in metropolitan Melbourne, there are still the five reasons to leave home: shopping for food and supplies, authorised work and study, care and caregiving, exercise, and getting vaccinated. People can travel further for exercise and shopping, with an expanded 10km radius.

Students in Year 11 and 12 have returned to face-to-face learning and several outdoor jobs have been added to the authorised list.

For regional Victoria, the travel restrictions and five reasons to leave home have been lifted. All year levels and all students return to face-to-face schooling. Public gatherings have increased to ten people and restaurants and cafés can reopen to a maximum of 50 patrons.

More information about the restrictions can be found at COVIDSafe Settings.

Update: Outbreaks

The two community cases today are known primary close contacts of existing outbreaks.

One case is linked to the Port Melbourne outbreak and has been isolating for the entirety of their infectious period.

Through genomic sequencing and epidemiological investigations, public health teams have also connected four of the previously unlinked cases to this outbreak.

The other new case is connected to the West Melbourne outbreak.

The Department is also aware of two positive cases linked to the Arcare Maidstone Residential Aged Care Facility. The individuals are a resident and an employee. All care staff at the facility are required to wear full PPE and submit to regular testing, which is how the staff case was detected. The staff member had not worked at other facilities. These two cases will be included in tomorrow’s numbers.

Investigations continue into the source of the Delta outbreak. The sequence data has been run against the national database and all laboratories supplying this data have been contacted to ensure the database is up to date.

This leaves just three cases with an unknown acquisition source. The acquisition source of the Whittlesea outbreak, the acquisition source of the aged care outbreak and the acquisition source of the West Melbourne outbreak which is associated with the Delta variant.

There are more than 6,000 personal close contacts in quarantine, however, more than 1,900 people are expected to be released today as they reach day 14 of their quarantine period.

98% of the Tier 1 close contacts connected with North Melbourne Primary School have returned a negative test result so far.

More than 200 primary close contacts linked to a construction site where a positive case worked have been identified, with priority testing continuing today for those people.

After further investigation, this site has been added to the public exposure list as a Tier 1 site out of an abundance of caution.

Several exposure sites remain a particular focus for Public Health teams including a network of jewellery wholesalers on levels 4 and 5 of 227 Collins St, which is the corner of Collins and Swanston streets in the city. One business in this building was previously listed as an exposure site, but this has now been expanded.

Anyone who visited the area between 31 May and 3 June is considered a primary close contact and needs to get tested and quarantine.

Craigieburn Central or Epping Plaza continue to be of concern and anyone who shops regularly at these locations is urged to come forward and get tested.

Text messages have gone out today to people in Craigieburn and surrounds reminding them to get tested if they have any symptoms. There are now more than 330 public exposure sites identified and published at Case alerts - public exposure sites.

The Department also manages a number of exposure sites which it doesn’t publish online, particularly if these sites represent lower-risk exposures, or if they have comprehensive record keeping and contact tracing measures in place, or if they identify small, private locations.

Exposure sites are regularly reviewed based on intelligence and evidence, following case interviews.

Positive COVID-19 fragment wastewater detection in Melbourne's Inner North West.

There has been a detection of viral fragments of COVID-19 in a wastewater sample taken from the sewer catchment on 3 June serving several inner west and north suburbs in Melbourne.

This new detection is of interest as there are currently no confirmed COVID-19 cases in that area but it does contain exposure sites and is near West Melbourne.

A positive case associated with this post-code has been transferred to hotel quarantine and therefore excluded as the possible source.

The unexpected detections may be due to someone who has had COVID-19 that is no longer infectious continuing to ‘shed’ the virus or it may be due to an active but undiagnosed infectious case.

Residents of and recent visitors to the suburbs of Aberfeldie, Essendon, Essendon West, Flemington, Footscray, Kensington, Maribyrnong, Moonee Ponds, Parkville and Travancore are urged to monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 and get tested if any symptoms develop.

The wastewater testing program is designed as an early warning system to support our ongoing efforts in continuing to protect the COVIDSafe environment, therefore a cautious approach is always taken when these detections are found.

The Department of Health has increased wastewater testing in the area and will continue to monitor the situation closely.

More detailed information is available at Wastewater testing.

Update: Vaccinations

Yesterday was another strong day for COVID-19 vaccinations in Victoria with 19,940 doses administered by state-commissioned services.

This brings the total number of vaccine doses administered at state-commissioned services as of yesterday to 613,914.

Victoria’s five-day vaccination blitz of aged care and disability care workers has been extended until tomorrow (Monday) to ensure as many of these workers as possible get priority access to one of our 10 high-volume vaccination centres.

More than 10,000 private sector aged care and residential disability workers have been vaccinated in our current blitz.

From Wednesday 9 June, our vaccination blitz focus will turn to Ambulance Victoria staff.

That blitz will run for five days until Sunday 13 June where paramedics, non-emergency patient transport workers and staff will be offered priority walk-up access for vaccinations.

Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms, or who is a primary close contact, must not attend a vaccination centre. Go to a testing centre, get a test, and go home until you receive your result.

General advice

Coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms include fever, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath and loss or change in sense of smell or taste. If you are experiencing symptoms, wear a fitted face mask when you get tested.

For more information call the 24-hour Coronavirus Hotline at 1800 675 398 or visit www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au

Latest statewide numbers (data reported to 11:59pm yesterday):