Victoria has recorded one new local case of coronavirus as Melbourne residents wake up to their second day out of lockdown.
The Department of Health said the local case of the virus comes from more than 17,000 test results received in the past 24 hours to midnight.
The new Covid case is a primary close contact who has been in quarantine during their infectious period, with no new cases acquired overseas.
Authorities are now scrambling to find the source of the mystery new case, as 19 new exposure sites were added to the Victorian Health website.
Victoria’s Covid ‘Commander-in-Chief’ Jeroen Weimer (pictured) has ominously warned there are ‘certainly’ more cases in the state after it was revealed testing numbers have dropped on Saturday
A popular McDonalds in the heart of Melbourne’s Southbank has been forced to close after a customer infected with Covid dined there last week.
The positive case attended the fast food chain between 5.10pm and 5.20pm on Friday, June 11.
Covid fragments have also been detected in the sewage systems of a handful of suburbs, sparking concerns the virus could be in the region undetected.
Wastewater in the northeastern suburbs of Balwyn North, Bulleen, Bundoora, Eaglemont, Heidelberg, Heidelberg Heights, Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe East, Kew East, Macleod, Rosanna, Viewbank, Watsonia and Yallambie are of particular concern.
There are no current confirmed cases in the areas, prompting fears there is an undiagnosed infectious case still in the community.
Anybody who visited the areas between June 9 and 10 are urged to seek testing if they develop any Covid symptoms.
Meanwhile the state’s Covid ‘Commander-in-Chief’ Jeroen Weimer has ominously warned there are ‘certainly’ more cases in the state after it was revealed testing numbers have dropped significantly.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Mr Weimer admitted he was concerned at the development, with only 15,110 tests in the last 24 hours.
The figures are significantly less than the 40,000 test results being checked when the state’s fourth lockdown began late last month.
‘My personal view is that there are certainly more cases out there,’ Weimer said.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr Weimer admitted he was concerned at the development, with only 15,110 tests conducted on Saturday (pictured a shopper wearing a protective face mask scans a QR code before entering a store in Melbourne)
‘I think we are talking very small numbers – but we need to track them down because as we have seen, if we let them linger and build, we have seen how infectious this Kappa variant can be in certain settings.’
He also had a message for his fellow Victorians – encourage everyone they know to get tested.
‘If you’ve got a colleague complaining of a sore throat, make sure they get tested and isolate at home,’ he said.
He also said the state’s Delta strain outbreak had been well contained. Zero new cases have been linked to that outbreak in almost a week.
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However, the Kappa strain is proving to be more testing.
‘Two or three weeks into the outbreak, that we are still finding new branches is of concern,’ the Covid Commander said.
Victoria’s Covid Commander Jeroen Weimer also had a message for his fellow Victorians – get tested as soon as possible (pictured, people on Lygon St on Friday after the lockdown ended on Thursday night
A Coles Express in Melbourne (pictured) has been identified as a Covid exposure site by health authorities
Melbourne’s lockdown has ended – but overnight 19 new exposure sites were added to the Victorian Health website
Earlier on Saturday, Victoria recorded one new mystery case of Covid. The positive case was a man from the City of Melbourne.
It comes as 19 new exposure sites were added to the Victorian Health website overnight, including a number of restaurants, a Coles Express and a medical centre.
Virus sites include Cragieburn, Taylors Lakes, Hillside, North Melbourne, Burnside, Reservoir, Thornbury, Thomastown, Docklands, and Taylors Hill.
Summer Hill Shopping Village is deemed a Tier 1 exposure site, with any people who visited the venue on June between 8.45am and 10.30am required to isolate immediately, get a Covid test and then quarantine for 14 days.
A further 18 Tier 2 exposure sites were confirmed on Friday, with residents and guests advised to be tested urgently and isolate until they receive a negative result.
Three new cases have also been detected in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of active cases in Victoria to 74.
Despite the lockdown finally ending for Victorian residents on Thursday night at 11.59pm, a number of restrictions still apply.
Residents in metropolitan Melbourne are not allowed to have visitors to their homes and can’t travel more than 25km from their homes – except for work, care, study or to travel to their nearest vaccination centre.
Face masks remain mandatory outdoors, with social gatherings permitted outdoors with up to 10 people.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has urged Victorians not to dismiss outdoor settings as possible transmission risks.
‘(Masks) still reduce transmission substantially, people move in and out of indoor and outdoor areas all the time, and it is not always easy to judge how close others are,’ he said.
Restaurants, bars, shops and beauty services are now open.
