Tale of two cities as Cairns, Melbourne await news on lockdowns
Communities at opposite ends of Australia’s eastern seaboard will today await news if they can emerge from lockdowns.
Cairns residents will learn on Wednesday if they’ll escape a snap lockdown sparked by two cases of COVID-19 in the far north Queensland city, while Melburnians are facing an anxious wait for a decision on when the city’s sixth lockdown might lift.
Victoria recorded 20 new local cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, all of which were linked to known outbreaks and five were in quarantine throughout their infectious period.
Late on Tuesday night the health department said a confirmed case of COVID-19 had been found to be connected to a Melbourne paediatric specialist clinic.
The department said it was investigating “a potential exposure at private medical rooms” located at 48 Flemington Road, on Monday August 9, with investigations underway into that person’s movements.
However, it was not confirmed whether the case worked at the clinic or was a patient.
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Sydney and surrounds are in lockdown until at least August 28, while the Hunter, Byron Bay, Armidale and Tamworth are enduring snap lockdowns.
Cairns and the neighbouring Aboriginal community of Yarrabah were ordered into the three-day lockdown at 4pm on Sunday after a taxi driver spent 10 days in the community while he was infectious.
On seven of those days the was behind the wheel of his cab, driving passengers around the city. He was not vaccinated.
Residents have been flocking to testing centres since news of the case broke on Sunday.
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Wednesday’s figures will be the third set of results since then, and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young will be relying on them as she decides if the lockdown can end as planned at 4pm.
Authorities have determined the cabbie caught the virus from a marine pilot he took to the Cairns Airport on July 26.
They had mistakenly assumed he was infected later than that, explaining why the cabbie was not initially picked up as contact of the marine pilot.
Meanwhile, Dr Young will be hoping for another day of few new cases in the southeast.
On Tuesday there were just three new locally acquired cases, all linked to the Indooroopilly cluster and all in isolation for the entirety of their infectious periods.
Regional Victoria was released from its lockdown at midnight on Monday, however Greater Melbourne remains under stay-at-home rules until at least 8pm Thursday.
Authorities have refused to rule out an extension to the lockdown, with Health Minister Martin Foley saying decisions were being made on an “hour-by-hour basis”.
Two big Victorian events were cancelled on Tuesday – the AFL Grand Final Parade and the Avalon Airshow.
The exposure site list grew to more than 270, including a second housing tower in Flemington.
Of greatest concern to authorities is Caroline Springs Square Shopping Centre, where half of Tuesday’s new cases contracted the virus.
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