Covid 19 coronavirus: Ten-day delay in detection of new Melbourne cases causes authorities to rush to trace contacts

Australian health authorities are bracing for the worst after it was revealed that the latest confirmed coronavirus cases in Victoria went undetected for 10 days.

During that time, those infected visited several densely populated locations, including a major shopping mall on Christmas Eve, exposing thousands of Melburn residents to Covid-19.

There were no new Covid cases in the community today, Victorian health authorities said, but 170 main contacts had been identified from yesterday’s eight cases and more cases were expected in the coming days.

“I will expect that we see more cases out of the 170 close contacts and also the numbers continue to increase in terms of secondary contacts,” said test chief Jeroen Weimar.

The race is now in contact with the trail and testing of as many people as possible to overcome the outbreak, which is believed to have spread from Sydney.

The alleged “patient zero” in this new outbreak visited Sydney before returning home to Melbourne on December 19.

Victoria has closed its border with New South Wales, which is struggling to control an outbreak that started on the northern beaches but has now spread across the city and beyond.

A new group in Croydon, in the interior-west of Sydney, grew again yesterday, and more details were released about the movements of the large family at the center of the outbreak.

Authorities in both states pleaded with the public to avoid New Year’s celebrations last night amid fears that it could lead to “superpreaders” events.

While those in Sydney overwhelmingly delivered, it was a different story in Melbourne, where hundreds of people packed St Kilda Beach and Federation Square to call in 2021.