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Victoria has excluded travelers from New South Wales as health authorities scramble to contain low levels of community transmission of the coronavirus.
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Tourists were told to return before midnight or they would face two weeks of quarantine. Source: 1 NEWS
Motorists lined up to get to Victoria before the midnight deadline on Friday to avoid having to self-quarantine, and Melbourne’s Covid-19 testing centers swelled to cope with thousands of tests.
The hard border ends a confusing progression of minor border restrictions that Victoria had been imposing since the run-up to Christmas.
The latest cases of community transmission in Victoria are two people linked to a Thai restaurant by the bay who later traveled to New South Wales. The couple is yet to be counted in Victoria’s official daily figures.
The Victorian government released a statement on Friday saying the couple attended the Buffalo Smile Thai restaurant on December 21.
They traveled to Lakes Entrance a week later, on December 28 and 29, and then went on to Bega and Bermagui in New South Wales.
They were contacted by public health authorities in Victoria on December 31, where they were already in a line of Covid-19 tests from NSW, a spokeswoman said. The couple is now isolated in Victoria.
Aside from these two cases revealed Friday, eight other Victorian cases are linked to the Black Rock restaurant.
“We now have two separate groups of people who are unknown to each other and who were adjacent in the restaurant,” said Victoria’s test manager Jeroen Weimar.
A traveler from New South Wales was also at that restaurant.
Health Minister Martin Foley said that was the main line of investigation into the outbreak.
No link has been found between the eight cases and any other known infections, and genomic tests are underway to confirm whether the traveler is the root of the outbreak.
Weimar said 170 primary contacts out of those eight cases are the main concern, with hundreds of secondary contacts also being asked to get tested and self-isolate for 14 days.
“If your primary close contact connection turns out not to have been infectious, you will be released from that investigation and can leave,” he said.
One of the positive cases recently moved to a vacation rental in Leongatha, in the eastern part of the state, expanding the area of close contacts.
Five exhibition sites are among those of most concern to authorities, including the Thai restaurant.
The Royal Brighton Yacht Club, the Holy Family Parish Catholic Church in Doveton, the clubhouse bar at Woodlands Golf Club in Mordialloc, and the Village Cinema in Century City in Glen Waverley are also areas of concern.
The state is handling another nine active cases in foreign travelers who are in hotel quarantine.
Anyone arriving after the border closure at midnight Friday from anywhere in New South Wales must spend fifteen days in quarantine.
Weimar said that anyone already in line for the border when the strict restriction takes effect at 11:59 p.m. Friday will still be able to isolate themselves at home.
But those who arrive after the deadline must be quarantined in a hotel for 14 days.
On Thursday, Acting Prime Minister Jacinta Allan reintroduced the requirement for mandatory indoor masks and reduced the number of visitors allowed in Victorian homes to 15 from 30.
Residents of Victoria can continue to return from Canberra with a permit, while more details will be announced for border communities and people traveling through NSW to return to Victoria. WA has re-imposed strict border restrictions on Victoria.
