Victorian cases still on the rise

HEALTH authorities have named the western suburbs as their primary area of concern as the Victorian Covid outbreak continues to escalate.

State Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said 60 per cent of Victoria’s 79 new locally acquired cases were from the western suburbs.

He said of the 46 positive cases from the region on Friday, 12 were located in Wyndham and 11 in Newport.

There are now at least 150 of Victoria’s 660 active cases in the western suburbs, with 39 in Wyndham, 81 in Newport and 19 linked to the Newport Football Club.

Mr Weimar said the health department continued to work with leaders and agencies across the region to try and drive case numbers down.

He said there were multiple chains of transmission across the western suburbs that contact tracers were trying to track down.

Health Minister Martin Foley said the latest outbreak commenced in the western suburbs but that was no reflection on the people who lived there.

“This is where the incursions from NSW landed, and it has morphed as a result in the north and west,” he said.