Melburnians received an indirect warning about the main challenge standing in the way of a reopening that would bring them in par with their regional counterparts: mystery cases.
The state recorded 25 locally acquired new infections, including five that continued under investigation on Sunday afternoon.
The breakdown for the 20 with links to known outbreaks is as follows, while 13 had been in the community while infectious.
- Ten linked to the Al-Taqwa College
- Seven linked to the Glenroy West Primary School
- Three linked to the Caroline Springs Shopping Centre
Daily tallies of more than a dozen new infections along with mystery cases have been consistent for the past week, with Premier Daniel Andrews saying the latter are still “far too many”.
“There are a number of mystery cases, and those numbers continue to grow. And that is very challenging,” he said.
“If we were to reopen the whole economy, if we were to reopen and let people move freely right now, then we would finish up where Sydney is. Thousands of cases, not cases in the tens and 20s, but thousands of cases, and hundreds and hundreds of people in hospital, and many of them, very unwell. We would finish up with deaths.”
Concern over several cases remaining unlinked to outbreaks comes down to the scenario of undetected spreading of the virus in the community.
On Saturday, Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley said authorities wanted to see daily testing rates increase at 40,000 or more.
“What we have seen as a result of this growing number every day is that we have multiple outbreaks with multiple exposure sites, right across Melbourne,” Mr Foley said.
Checked exposure sites lately? More have been published online at https://t.co/xojLvnrdjA including: pic.twitter.com/dAlh8gsJUI
— Victorian Department of Health (@VicGovDH) August 15, 2021
“Whilst we have genomic links we still don’t have a source of infections for a number of these positive cases.”
Greater Melbourne’s current lockdown has been extended until at least Thursday 19 August.
