Two busy venues have been added to Melbourne’s growing list of Covid-19 exposure sites.
Anyone who visited Caltex or Hungry Jack’s in Kalkallo, north of the city, on July 8 between 9.07am and 10.06am is considered a Tier one contact, and must get tested and isolate for 14 days.
The venues are linked to two removalists who travelled from Sydney through Victoria to Adelaide last week, before testing positive.
Pictured: Caltex and Hungry Jack’s in Kalkallo, in Melbourne’s north, which are now Covid exposure sites
Pictured: Vic Health workers prepare to enter Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong, Melbourne, on Tuesday
The workers made a drop-off at a family home in Craigieburn and a pick-up at the Maribyrnong apartment last Thursday.
Both families of four are isolating and have been tested.
The crew is believed to have immediately left Melbourne and arrived in Adelaide early Friday morning.
The infected cases have also put a Mobil service station and McDonald’s in Ballan on alert, along with a Coles in Craigieburn.
Covid-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said the removalists were not ‘forthcoming’ about their movements.
‘I can understand there’s a number of scenarios that might be going through their heads,’ he told reporters on Tuesday.
‘The only thing we care about is the information, so we can act upon it and put the public health response in place. Everything else is secondary.’
The infected cases have also put a Mobil service station, a McDonald’s, a Metro petrol station and a Coles at Craigieburn Central Shopping Centre (pictured)
An infected case visited Ballan McDonald’s (pictured) on July 8 between 5pm and 7pm
Removalists are permitted workers under Victoria’s border permit system.
An apartment complex in Melbourne also in lockdown for 14 days after being visited by the infected removalists.
Residents of the Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s north-west have been ordered not to leave the building after the infected group visited on July 8.
The complex is listed as a Tier 1 exposure site, which means anyone at the apartments from 1pm to 11.59pm on that day must get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result.
Resident Craig McLean recalled walking directly past the removalists in the building foyer the day they were there.
Residents in the Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong (pictured on Tuesday) cannot leave the building for two weeks after it was visited by infected removalists last week
‘Obviously it’s very, very frustrating as clearly rules haven’t been followed,’ Mr McLean told Sunrise from his first floor balcony on Tuesday.
‘We now find ourselves in lockdown while the rest of Melbourne is out of that state, so it’s very frustrating.’
He feared not all residents may be unaware they’ve been ordered to isolate for two weeks and may have left for work on Tuesday.
‘I heard a bit of traffic outside so potentially that has happened,’ he said.
‘We could hear people in foyer moving around. Again, not ideal.’
Apartment resident Craig McLean will spend the next two weeks in lockdown. He’s pictured speaking to Sunrise from second floor apartment on Tuesday
Mr McLean originally thought it was an Uber Eats driver who had the wrong unit when he got a knock at the door around 9pm on Monday night.
‘We opened up the door and there was a letter there, so I contacted the hotline for further clarification, where they told me to gest tested and isolate for 14 days,’ he said.
Health workers donning personal protective equipment were spotted entering the building on Tuesday as residents watched on from their balconies.
Another woman in the building told Sunrise she had no idea until she found a letter in her letterbox.
Resident Nicola Clement is holed up in her 10th lockdown or isolation period following stints in Western Australia and New Zealand since the pandemic.
‘Of all the apartments in Melbourne, I couldn’t believe it was mine,’ she told the Herald Sun.
A resident in lockdown at the Ariele Apartments steps onto his balcony to get some fresh air
‘One thing I’m grumpy about is it’s a stricter lockdown than Sydney.’
Another resident only found out his apartment was an exposure site after checking the Health Department’s website.
‘I was going to work … realised we had the lockdown and came home,’ he said
Residents cannot leave the buildings unless they getting Covid-19 test or in an emergency.
Anyone who visited been to the complex any time between July 9 and 12 must also get tested and isolate until they test negative.
Victoria’s 12-day run of zero community cases has come to an end. Pictured are health workers entering the Ariele Apartments on Tuesday
Three members of the same Melbourne household have also tested positive and are in isolation, having recently returned from NSW on red zone permits.
Three of the four family members from the City of Hume arrived on July 4 by air and the other returned by car on July 8.
They all initially tested negative but two became symptomatic and were tested on Sunday, with the results coming back positive on Monday.
Neither the flight nor Melbourne Airport has been listed as exposure sites, as the family tested negative for the virus two days after their arrival and other passengers are already self-isolating as part of their red zone permit conditions.
Policemen at a checkpoint at the New South Wales-Victoria border. The new infected cases entered Victoria before the border was closed at midnight on Sunday