The decision made by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to lockdown the entire state was based off the ‘wrong’ information, a regional town mayor has claimed.
The state was thrown into its sixth lockdown at 8pm on Thursday following an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19.
Mr Andrews said virus fragments had been found in wastewater in the town of Wangaratta, around 250km north-east of Melbourne.
Despite there being no cases outside of the capital city, the premier said regional Victoria would go into the snap lockdown as well because sewage detections meant cases were likely to pop up.
But Wangaratta mayor Dean Rees said he was informed by North East Health that while there’d been one positive detection found in the sewage a week ago there’d since been two negatives – which meant the virus was not circulating in the area.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the entire state would be thrown into its sixth lockdown at 8pm on Thursday following an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19
‘We feel that Dan (Andrews) has accidentally been given the wrong information and has portrayed that,’ Mr Rees told The Australian.
‘I don’t think they’d give us false information purposely, but it’s clear it was false information.
‘It sounded like it was the basis for putting us into lockdown, so I think a reversal would be fair and reasonable.’
Mr Andrews, who went to school in Wangaratta, said detections of the virus in wastewater often led to new infections.
‘With one sewage detection we have to assume there are cases, so that’s why it’s statewide,’ he said.
Health Minister Martin Foley in a press conference denied the wastewater detection was the reason for throwing the entire state into lockdown.
The Mayor of regional town Wangaratta says the entire state was put into lockdown based on ‘wrong information’ as there are no infections outside of Melbourne
Covid response commander Jeroen Weimar didn’t have an answer when asked if there were any primary or close contacts isolating in regional parts of the state.
‘The general message is we did not go into lockdown for trivial reasons and we didn’t do it because we were worried about a small number of cases in the western suburbs,’ Mr Weimar said.
‘We’re worried about a Delta penetration again here in Victoria. We’re worried it might be seeding out quite widely. We’re worried it might be going to places we haven’t yet seen.’
Meanwhile Victoria has recorded 29 new Covid cases on Saturday with all of them out in the community while infectious.
Health authorities say all the cases are linked to current outbreaks.
A gathering that involved family members who had just left New South Wales quarantine is being investigated as a possible cause of the latest outbreak in Victoria.
Contact tracers are probing the movements of a man aged in his 20s from Maribyrnong, in northwest Melbourne, after he tested positive to Covid-19.
Health authorities believe he could have caught the virus after meeting with relatives who had recently been cleared from quarantine in NSW.
Victoria has recorded 29 new Covid cases on Saturday with all of them out in the community while infectious
‘It may well be the case that they’ve been visited, against the rules, by a positive case,’ Mr Andrews said.
If the link can be confirmed it will mark the second time the virus has escaped from NSW – since its latest outbreak began on June 16 – and forced Victoria into a snap lockdown.
Another six cases were recorded on Friday. Three of the cases are linked to the city of Maribyrnong outbreak in the city’s inner-west.
One of those infections is the housemate of a warehouse worker in the outer-west suburb of Derrimut whose case was reported on Thursday.
The housemate is a cleaner who worked at the Epworth Hospital in Richmond, Health Minister Martin Foley said on Friday.
There are currently no known infectious outside of Melbourne despite the entire state being locked down
The other three new cases – two of which were announced on Thursday – are linked to the Hobsons Bay cluster in Melbourne’s south-west.
Friday’s announcement came as authorities ordered anyone who was onboard Virgin Australia flight VA808 from Sydney to Melbourne on August 2 to get tested and self-isolate for 14 days after an infected passenger.
He entered Melbourne on a valid travel permit before testing positive during his mandatory quarantine period.
Health officials are concerned one of the mystery cases announced on Thursday, an infected teacher at Al-Taqwa College in Truganina, may have unknowingly spread the virus in the community while infectious.
Her partner and two relatives have also tested positive.
The Al-Taqwa College has become a testing site and is offering vaccinations to staff and students.
A Year 6 student from Heathdale Christian College has also tested positive forcing both its Werribee and Melton campuses to close.
The school took to Facebook to urge anyone who had visited the campus to immediately get tested and isolate.