Cases linked to new clusters climb to 26 as Phillip Island exposure sites added

Another two people connected to Trinity Grammar boys school have tested positive to COVID-19, as the number of exposure sites related to the broader Victorian outbreak shot past 150.

Principal Adrian Farrer, confirmed on Friday night that there were now three cases at the Kew school.

The initial case at Trinity Grammar, a man in his 30s, is among four new positive cases associated with the MCG reported on Friday. That man also attended the Wallabies test match at AAMI Park on Tuesday night.

The new Trinity Grammar cases are yet to be confirmed by the Department of Health and could be listed in tomorrow’s official numbers.

Twelve new locally acquired cases were detected on Friday, including four cases revealed on Thursday. Two of the new cases are teachers from Bacchus Marsh Grammar, who will be included in Saturday’s figures.

The outbreak stood at 26 on Friday, with more than 150 exposure sites and 6500 people classified as close contacts.

Meanwhile, Deakin University confirmed on Friday afternoon that a staff member who was at its Waurn Ponds campus in Geelong between 9am and 3pm on Wednesday has tested positive to COVID-19. Parts of the university campus were listed as official exposure sites late on Friday.

Vice-chancellor Iain Martin said the staff member did not do any teaching while on campus and that a “small number” of close contacts were told to get tested and isolate.

A parent of a student at Ballarat Clarendon College has also tested positive to COVID-19, forcing the entire school community of almost 2000 students and staff into isolation.

It is the third school west of Melbourne to be linked with the state’s current outbreak.

Two Multiplex constructions sites in Melbourne’s CBD were also closed down on Friday after an engineer who had attended both locations tested positive for the virus.

It is not known if any of these three infections are new or previously announced cases.

COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar also said one of Friday’s fresh cases is a household contact of the COVID-19 positive teacher from Barwon Heads who attended an MCG football match with a resident from the Ariele Apartments who was infected.

All the cases at Bacchus Marsh Grammar are colleagues of the Barwon Heads teacher.

Young & Jackson’s.Credit:Penny Stephens

There are now a total of four cases associated with the MCG event, including the latest case in a man in 20s from Point Cook who works at the Sanctuary Lakes Hotel. The MCG cases reported on Thursday included a 10-year-old child, a man in his 20s from Montmorency and the Trinity Grammar teacher.

There were also two fresh cases of men, both in their thirties, associated with the Young & Jackson pub in the CBD. Mr Weimar said one of those lives on a naval base, a member of the HMAS Cerberus on the Mornington Peninsula, south-east of Melbourne.

Both cases were unknown to each other and did not know the index case.

He also said the new cases identified at the MCG “did not know each other, did not sit together, did not know the index case [a man in his 60s from the Ariele apartment complex] or his friend”.

“We are back in the world of fleeting transmission occurring,” he said.

One case was also recorded in hotel quarantine on Friday.

The new cases came as Victoria entered a fifth lockdown that restricts residents to a five-kilometre bubble around their homes.

Victorians now have five reasons to leave home â€" to get food or essential supplies, for two hours of exercise and for caregiving, authorised work, or to get vaccinated.

There were 33,129 COVID-19 test results processed in the 24 hours to midnight on Thursday, and more than 17,188 people received their vaccine doses from state authorities

Exposure site list swells

There were over 30 exposure sites added on Friday, including about a dozen Phillip Island locations.

There are now over 150 exposure sites, 1500 close contacts and 5000 secondary contacts in Victoria.

Other sites in Richmond, Hawthorn and Essendon were also added the list on Friday.

Queensland shuts border to Victoria

Queensland will shut its border to Victoria from Saturday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced.

Anyone entering Queensland from Victoria after 1am on Saturday will go into two weeks of hotel quarantine.

Peak hour at Flinders Street station on the first day of lockdown. Credit:Penny Stephens

Ms Palaszczuk said on Friday morning the situation was moving rapidly, and she wished Victoria the best.

“I just think that the clear message to Queenslanders is definitely do not go to NSW and do not go to Victoria during this period of time,” she said.

Other states and territories were quick to shut their borders on Thursday: Tasmania shut its border entirely, while South Australia and the Northern Territory will enforce 14 days of quarantine for all visitors from Greater Melbourne and Geelong.

Lockdown may be lifted earlier in regional Victoria

On Friday, Mr Andrews also raised the prospect that regional Victorians might get an earlier exit from the state’s five-day lockdown.

“It may not be possible. If I do not get advised that it is safe then I won’t do it,” he said.

Business support package announced

A deal was struck on Thursday night between the federal and Victorian governments on financial support for the latest lockdown.

The state government will provide $3000 and $2000 payments to 90,000 businesses who are again being hit by lockdown.

Mr Andrews said the state government would pick up the tab for support in areas outside the federally declared hotspots.

People and businesses in hotspot areas - which includes greater Melbourne, Geelong, and the Surf Coast - will receive assistance from the federal government under the same rules as the NSW scheme announced by the prime minister earlier this week.

The state would also make available a $200 million business support package.

“We’re looking to make automatic payments. [If businesses got a] grant last time you’ll get a grant this time, and you will receive those monies we will pay them almost certainly before the end of this lockdown certainly early next week,” he said.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Friday.Credit:Getty/Robert Cianflon

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Mathew Dunckley is digital editor at The Age. Based in our Melbourne newsroom, he was previously business editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age and Melbourne bureau chief for the Australian Financial Review.

Simone is a crime reporter for The Age. Most recently she covered breaking news for The Age, and before that for The Australian in Melbourne.

Adam Carey is Education Editor. He joined The Age in 2007 and has previously covered state politics, transport, general news, the arts and food.

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