Covid 19 coronavirus: Hundreds of people forced into self-isolation while another case of coronavirus is confirmed at Melbourne school

Hundreds of people are in isolation while another contact at a Melbourne school tested positive for COVID-19, raising concerns about loosening restrictions.

Nearly 1,000 people have been forced into isolation in Melbourne’s northern suburbs after a school student tested positive for coronavirus.

Department of Health and Human Services testing commander Jeroen Weinmar said 83 families associated with East Preston Islamic College were now confined to their homes.

He urged any family with a child at school to come in for the test on Friday.

The only new infection on Friday was a parent from Preston’s school.

“That, in turn, will generate closer contacts and more secondary contacts.

Around 400 people are secondary contacts for the cases at East Preston Islamic College, “Weinmar told reporters today.

“We also have 390 additional secondary work-in-progress contacts spread across a large number of suburbs in the northern area. That makes about 800 people that we are asking to self-isolate.”

“What we saw yesterday at Broadmeadows and what we saw at Shepparton and what we saw at Kilmore is the importance of scaling up quickly, testing as many people as possible and then trying to focus on the remaining cases that we have.”

Weinmar said that the new positive case, “based on our initial conversations with her,” had had “very few contacts” outside the home.

There were no more deaths on Friday as Melbourne’s 14-day moving average fell from 6.1 to 5.5.

There are 10 mystery cases in Melbourne and zero in the Victoria region.

Regional Victoria has a daily average of only 0.3 cases.