Victoria records four new Covid cases overnight as the state prepares to come out of lockdown on Freedom Friday
- The new cases are from the same household and investigations are underway
- Melbourne’s extended ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown will end at 11.59pm Thursday
- Restrictions will also ease further for regional Victoria from Friday
- A Covid-positive woman and her husband left Melbourne while in lockdown
Victoria has recorded four new locally acquired Covid cases a day before the state is set to come out of lockdown.
The four new cases are from the same household and investigations into the source are underway.
On Wednesday, the state government announced Melbourne’s extended ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown will end at 11.59pm on Thursday, meaning people will be free to leave home for any reason.
But Melburnians will need to remain within 25km of their homes, unless working or studying, care giving or getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
Acting Premier James Merlino said the measure was in place to keep Melbourne residents out of regional areas over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
On Wednesday, the state government announced Melbourne’s extended ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown will end at 11.59pm on Thursday, meaning people will be free to leave home for any reason
Restrictions will also ease further for regional Victoria from Friday.
Meanwhile Victorian health authorities held an emergency meeting with their Queensland and NSW counterparts over a woman’s positive case.
The woman and her husband left Melbourne while the city was in lockdown and tested positive at the end of the road trip through NSW and into Queensland.
Separately, three people were caught flying into New Zealand last week, having also left Melbourne during lockdown and trying to enter the country via Sydney.
The trio, understood to be a family who planned to attend a funeral, are now in quarantine after they were caught on arrival in Auckland.
While those three travellers have tested negative so far, the woman’s positive test on Wednesday has put regional centres in NSW and Queensland on alert.
Victoria’s health department said an emergency meeting of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee was held on Wednesday night.
It also raised the prospect of Victorian exposure sites related to the woman’s case.
‘Any critical information will be provided to the public as soon as possible when case interviews for any potential Victorian exposure sites can commence,’ the health department said.
The woman and her husband left an unidentified suburb on the edge of greater Melbourne on June 1, while the Victorian capital was in lockdown to control community transmission of the virus.
They then travelled through regional Victoria, crossed the border into NSW where they visited regional centres, and then entered Queensland on June 5 – two days after she started showing symptoms of coronavirus.
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has said it was possible the woman was infectious from the day she left Melbourne.
The four new locally-acquired cases are from the same household and investigations into acquisition source are underway
Melburnians will need to remain within 25km of their homes, unless working or studying, care giving or getting a COVID-19 vaccine
Also on Wednesday night, the health department said COVID-19 viral fragments had been detected in a wastewater sample taken from a sewer sub-catchment near Bendigo.
The sub-catchment services the country town’s north-west suburbs and residents, plus visitors from June 3-7, are being urged to get tested if they develop symptoms.
The northern states’ scare and news of the Auckland incident came as Melbourne had confirmation its two-week lockdown was on the verge of ending.
On Wednesday, the state government announced Melbourne’s extended ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown will cease at 11.59pm on Thursday, meaning people will be free to leave home for any reason.
But Melburnians will need to remain within 25km of their homes, unless working or studying, care giving or getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
Acting Premier James Merlino said the measure was in place to keep Melbourne residents out of regional areas over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
Restrictions will also ease further for regional Victoria from Friday.
Victoria reported just one new local case on Wednesday and it is a linked infection. There were three new cases in hotel quarantine.