Virus spike from mingling guards but pubs to open

DOUBLE-DIGIT cases of coronavirus look set to continue in Victoria but will not impact a further easing of restrictions on Monday.

The spike in confirmed cases is tipped to continue for at least a few days, fuelled partly by inappropriate “mingling” of security guards at quarantine hotels.

Despite 13 new coronavirus cases being announced yesterday — and 51 cases in the past three days — Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen said restrictions would ease as planned on Monday.

However longer-term measures may be in doubt.

“Monday’s restrictions are going ahead … and we will continue to monitor and determine what may or may not come after Monday,” Dr van Diemen said.

Authorities fear Victoria’s string of double-digit daily cases could be the start of a second wave of the pandemic.

“We are hoping that this isn’t the beginning of a second wave and we are doing everything we absolutely can to ensure that is not the case,” Dr van Diemen said.

But she said current rates would not cause a major issue, provided they did not increase over the next fortnight.

From Monday, Victorian pubs, cafes and restaurants and pubs will be able to cater for up to 50 people at a time — up from 20 — while cinemas, theatres and gyms can partially reopen.

But scrutiny of staff at Melbourne’s quarantine hotels is being tightened after another five security guards at the Stamford Plaza tested positive for coronavirus.

The hotel outbreak has now been linked to a southeastern suburbs family cluster and has grown to seven cases since being detected on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately it does appear that quite a few of them have worked a single or multiple days while infectious, so we do expect … further cases linked to that outbreak,” Dr van Diemen said.

“It does appear that there have been some breaches of those guidelines … so we are increasing the auditing, increasing the supervision, increasing the training in all aspects of their work.

“There has been some closer mingling of these guards than we would like.”