● Australia scrambles to contain virus,
States on alert with Perth in lockdown, concern at Melbourne school visit and traces found in NSW sewage
Anationwide scramble in Australia to stop a wave of new Covid cases is under way, with states imposing tough new restrictions.
The moves come after Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan sent the Perth and Peel regions into a three-day lockdown on Friday night amid a Covid-19 outbreak at Perth’s Mercure Hotel.
One new community case was reported yesterday, a person who had been at one of the locations visited by the primary case. That person was a Victorian man who tested positive in Melbourne on Friday after completing 14 days of quarantine at the WA hotel. A pregnant woman and her 4-year-old daughter have also tested positive after their stay, having contracted the virus from an infected couple who had returned from India and were staying in a room opposite.
Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory have all introduced fresh restrictions following the WA outbreak.
An urgent health alert has also been issued for a Melbourne primary school after Victorian authorities contacted staff and students saying a Covid close contact had been on site.
The Victorian Department of Health issued the alert to the Caulfield South Primary School community, instructing people to quarantine.
The state was already on edge, having demanded that residents returning from WA go into 14 days self-isolation, going beyond the measures in WA itself, where people will be able to emerge from lockdown early on Tuesday. And in NSW, residents in 18 suburbs have been told to monitor for symptoms after Covid-19 fragments were detected in two sewer systems, health authorities revealed.
The updates followed warnings on Friday about potential exposure to the Melbourne man with Covid-19 on a Qantas flight from Perth to Melbourne and at Melbourne Airport.
The man was contacted as he was coming off the plane as a primary close contact, said Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley.
He was picked up at the airport by his spouse and returned directly home. His household contacts — his spouse and two children — are all currently in isolation after being tested.
McGowan said the man, who is in his 50s, may have been infectious for a five-day period in the Perth community, and has passed it on to one of his close contacts in the WA capital.
The Premier said the man arrived in Perth on April 3 on a flight from Shanghai.
In Perth, shopping for essentials such as groceries, medicine and necessary supplies will be allowed during the three-day lockdown — but that hasn’t stopped panic buying.
Police officers were called in to monitor the situation at some places on Friday as shoppers swarmed supermarkets across Perth, loading their trolleys with goods such as toilet paper, rice and pasta.