Concern over mystery cases in suburbs surrounding illegal party

Health authorities are concerned about new, unlinked cases emerging in the suburbs surrounding Caulfield North, where a prohibited engagement party was held last week.

Premier Daniel Andrews called for people with even the slightest symptoms to come forward from Bayside, Glen Eira, and Port Phillip local government areas, pointing to “further” COVID-19 cases there.

Police patrol Princes Park in Carlton on Tuesday morning.Credit:Joe Armao

Victoria’s Health Department deputy secretary Kate Matson said the cases had only been linked by geography so far. “These cases aren’t linked by age, they’re not linked by faith,” she said.

“They aren’t all in the same book club, they’re not all on the same footy club.

“The only thing they share is geographic proximity, they might live or work in the city of Glen Eira, or the city of Port Phillip.”

Victoria recorded 24 new local cases on Tuesday after health authorities extended Melbourne’s lockdown for two weeks until September 2.

They also tightened lockdown rules, fearing Melbourne was on the cusp of an explosion of cases after several major breaches of restrictions last week, including pub crawls and the illegal engagement party.

There have been five positive cases linked to the party, in addition to the original positive case who attended.

Fourteen of Tuesday’s new cases were in quarantine for the entirety of their infectious period and 21 new infections are linked to the current outbreak.

Andrews slams anti-Semitism

On Monday, Mr Andrews stressed that the party attended by dozens of people in the state’s Jewish community last week is not a reflection on that community as a whole.

“We called out some bad behaviour yesterday, we didn’t call [out] a community, because that would be simply unfair and wrong, and it’s clearly evidenced by the fact that so many Jewish community leaders are stepping up and have condemned what occurred, and have done so in the clearest terms,” Mr Andrews said.

“I’ve spoken with many of them in the last 36 hours. And I thank them for their leadership.”

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he was “horrified” to see anti-Semitic hate directed at the community overnight.

“It is incredibly disruptive to vilify individuals in terms of getting to where we need to be,” he said.

Their comments come after a Royal Melbourne Hospital staff member was fired after making anti-Semitic comments online.

In a statement, the hospital said it had been made aware of a support staff member who had made “abhorrent and disgraceful” comments on Facebook.

“The comment does not reflect our values. We do not tolerate racial or religious hatred, contempt or ridicule,” a hospital spokesperson said.

“The staff member is no longer an employee of the hospital and we apologise for the hurt and anger this has caused.

“We stand with and support our Jewish staff members, patients and community.”

Potential COVID transmission at playground

Professor Sutton said authorities were also investigating a potential COVID-19 transmission at one of the state’s playgrounds.

There are 50 active cases in Victoria that are children aged under 10.

He warned that authorities had seen child-to-child transmission at schools throughout this outbreak.

A council worker closes the Elwood skate park due to the tougher COVID-19 lockdown rules.Credit:Joe Armao

“It happens very quickly in households between children and we are investigating a potential transmission in a playground,” he said.

Professor Sutton said the decision to close playgrounds again was “difficult” â€" and affected his family as well as thousands of other families across Melbourne â€" but the risk of transmission in children was clear.

Plea for higher levels of testing

Mr Andrews said testing levels were not high enough and said authorities were concerned there were cases they did not know about.

In the 24 hours to midnight, more than 31,500 COVID-19 test results were processed in Victoria, and more than 25,700 people received their vaccine doses.

The state recorded one new overseas-acquired coronavirus case in hotel quarantine.

Curfew ‘tough’ but will work: Andrews

Mr Andrews said the re-introduction of a night curfew was “tough” but would work as a measure to drive down movement in the community.

The curfew for Melburnians between 9pm and 5am came into effect on Monday evening.

“[If] you’re in breach of the curfew and police will issue fines, and that does drive down drive down movement,” Mr Andrews said. “And that’s tough, but it works - it’s worked before, and it’ll work again.”

Cassandra Morgan is a breaking news reporter at The Age.

Share this post