Victorian Contact Tracers Identify as Many as 5000 Close Contacts Amid COVID-19 Surge
Thousands of Victorians may have been exposed to coronavirus amid a surge in infections.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said on Tuesday as many as 5000 people were considered close contacts of confirmed cases.
A close contact is someone who spent a prolonged amount of time with an infectious person and is deemed a high risk of having contracted the virus.
Close contacts are required to self-isolate for 14 days and seek testing.
Mr Sutton said each active infection had about eight close contacts. “It does become more and more challenging the greater number of cases that you have to get all of those close contacts,” he said.
“We do have automated systems to let close contacts know that they need to remain in quarantine but we do want to go through a dayby-day check-in for all of those close contacts in quarantine to make sure they are doing the right thing.”
It comes as Victoria is shut off from the rest of Australia as it grapples with a second peak of coronavirus infections.
Hard border closures between Victoria and New South Wales came into effect at midnight on Wednesday, the first closure about a century.
Fines of up to AU$11,000 (FJ$ 16,489.79) and jail time apply to people unlawfully crossing the border into NSW.
NSW residents entering Victoria are now required to isolate for two weeks upon returning home.
Victoria recorded its highest ever daily spike in cases with 191 on Tuesday, leading to a second lockdown on metropolitan Melbourne.
The entire city and surrounding suburbs will go back into stage three restrictions.
Mitchell Shire is also impacted by the lockdown measures. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said it was essential to prevent “thousands” of daily cases and eventual deaths.
“We know we’re on the cusp of something very, very bad if we don’t take these steps today,” Mr Andrews said on Tuesday.
About 5.2 million Melburnians will be impacted by the lockdown. Reimposed restrictions mean businesses will be restricted to take-away orders only, no visitors will be allowed in homes, public gatherings are limited to two people and the four essential reasons to leave homes applies.