Victoria concerns about mystery cases in Melbourne

As the state recorded 24 new cases of COVID-19, the commander of Victoria says officials are “exceptionally concerned” about the virus’s undiscovered spread in Melbourne’s inner south-east.

Six of the new cases were in the community for some period before being diagnosed, and 18 were under quarantine while infectious.

Twenty of the cases have been connected to existing clusters in Melbourne’s Delta epidemic, according to contact tracers. One of the main metrics driving the sixth lockdown of the city is the number of unlinked and mystery infections in the outbreak.

According to Health Minister Martin Foley, 56 of the 246 ongoing COVID-19 cases in Victoria are under the age of nine, and 55 are between the ages of ten and nineteen.

Mr. Foley said that one of the latest cases included a sex worker from St Kilda who was “safely quarantining” and taken care of by health officials.

He said there was no indication that the virus was spread through her job, but advised anybody who had used a sex worker in St Kilda in the last few days to be tested.

With a number of mystery cases developing in the region, contact tracers are particularly concerned about St Kilda and its adjacent south-eastern districts, particularly Caulfield North and Middle Park.

Mystery cases

When it came to mystery cases, Dr Bartone emphasised that everyone needed to be on high alert.

“What it actually means is that until we can link all of the cases and identify the source of transmission, we need to stay cautious, be extremely worried, and get tested.”

He also believes that the lockdown will be prolonged once again. On Thursday, the state will have been on lockdown for 200 days.

“Until testing numbers increase significantly above 30,000 a day, inside of all of those mystery cases, it doesn’t look promising at this stage.”

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