NYE private parties restricted to 15 people, masks mandatory indoors again - The Age

Gatherings in private homes in Victoria for New Year's Eve will be restricted to 15 people, down from 30, and masks will again be mandatory indoors.

Acting Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan announced the tightened measures on Thursday as the state recorded three more cases of COVID-19, in addition to the three women who confirmed positive on Wednesday.

The three new cases are among 52 close contacts of the original three in Hallam, Mitcham and Mentone. Those 52 contacts stretch across Melbourne and into parts of regional Victoria, authorities said.

Victorians have been told to brace for more cases as some of the 52 close contacts are showing coronavirus symptoms.

"There is the potential that there will be more cases … some of the close contacts are showing symptoms, and we will need to wait for the results," Ms Allan said.

"That is why the public health team has given the advice to immediately move to the announcements the government has made today."

Victoria’s testing chief, Jeroen Weimar, said the women reported as positive cases on Wednesday night were all linked to the same restaurant in Black Rock at the same time for about an hour on December 21.

Two of the women, from Mentone and Hallam, were family members and dined at the restaurant, he said. The third woman, from Mitcham, was unrelated. She was not at the restaurant, but a close contact of hers was there at the same time as the other women.

"We believe that is a connection point between the three cases we have seen," Mr Weimar said.

"Different tables. It highlights the highly infectious nature of the virus which is that these two groups of people are entirely unconnected with each other, and have no direct knowledge of each other."

He said the three newest cases had been found via contact tracing overnight.

Smile Buffalo Thai Cuisine restaurant on Beach Road at Black Rock in Melbourne's south-east. Credit:Penny Stephens

"Those people are all getting good support and care, we will continue to work with them to identify any contacts they have, and any secondary contacts," he said.

"As we recall, our approach to these cases is not just to deal with close contacts but also contacts of contacts, we will be putting out a further ring and asking anyone who knows those close contacts to also isolate, to get tested."

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Tony Blakely said Australia would continue to have outbreaks for as long as it allowed people to return from Britain, the US and other places with high infection rates – as hotel quarantine programs would never be perfect.

"This incursion of the virus will happen again and again until we're vaccinated enough," he said.

"When we get our first 100,000 doses of vaccine, they should be applied completely to the border control quarantine, airport, and airline staff to make an extra barrier around the arrival of people from high-infection countries."

The Holy Family Parish Church in Power Road Doveton is one of the COVID-19 exposure sites linked to the three new cases in Victoria.Credit:Penny Stephens

There were no cases recorded in Victorian hotel quarantine after more than 13,000 tests were carried out on Wednesday.

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clarification

An earlier version of this story stated that the woman from Mitcham had been at the Smile Buffalo restaurant at the same time as the other two positive cases. However, testing commander Jeroen Weimar has said it was a close contact of the Mitcham woman who was at the restaurant.

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2020-12-31 01:50:00Z
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