- Victoria has recorded three new cases of locally acquired COVID-19, two days on from the end of lockdown restrictions
- Premier Daniel Andrews placed the state into lockdown after a cluster of infections emerged from the Holiday Inn hotel quarantine program
- These latest cases are all linked to the hotel, with two adults and a child testing positive for COVID-19 after leaving the quarantine program
- Health authorities said the family have been isolating at home since being released from the Holiday Inn, meaning further spread is unlikely
- These latest cases come as Victoria prepares to begin immunising some of its residents against coronavirus
Another three locally acquired COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Victoria, two days one from the end of the state’s snap lockdown.
The cases are all linked to the Holiday Inn cluster, which first prompted Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to place the state back into lockdown last Friday.
The snap five-day lockdown was lifted on Wednesday night. However, some restrictions still remain in place as COVID-19 cases continue to emerge.
Close to 30 cases of the U.K. strain of the virus have now been linked to the hotel quarantine program being run at the hotel.
These latest cases involve a family of three who were staying at the Holiday Inn at the same time and on the same floor as the original infected patient.
Victoria’s Health Minister confirmed the two parents and their child tested positive for the virus after leaving the program earlier this month.
Martin Foley explained the family has remained in isolation since leaving quarantine and had tested negative to the virus on multiple occasions before testing positive on Thursday.
“The family isolated throughout their entire infectious period and throughout the entire period that they have been quarantining at home,” the Minister said.
Victoria’s COVID-19 Response Commander said the number of primary close contacts related to the Holiday Inn quarantine program outbreak now topped 3500.
However, Jeroen Weimar said he wasn’t overly concerned about these latest positive cases.
“We see these detections coming up. At this point in time, it’s an isolated set of detections so we’re not excessively worried,” he explained.
The latest cases in Victoria come as the state gets ready to begin immunising some of its residents against coronavirus.
From Monday, health professionals and other frontline workers will begin receiving the long-awaited Pfizer vaccine.
“Whether they work in hotel quarantine, at the airport, or a specialist COVID ward – we need to keep Victorians most at risk of infection safe, while they continue to keep Victorians safe,” the state’s Health Minister said.