State records 29 new local COVID-19 cases as outbreak spreads to Melbourne public housing tower

Public housing advocates are bracing for more cases in high-rise towers after Victoria recorded 29 new local COVID-19 cases and at least 38 new exposure sites on Saturday.

Authorities are still in the dark about the source of two mystery cases which are driving separate chains of transmission in an outbreak that has spread to a Flemington public housing tower where a family of eight have tested positive.

Premier Daniel Andrews said on Saturday all the new cases were linked to known outbreaks but were not in quarantine for their infectious periods. Genomic sequencing has linked the outbreak to the NSW outbreak.

A testing site is set up at the public housing tower on Racecourse Road in Flemington Credit:Luis Ascui

“We simply can’t work out where they [the index cases] got it from. That means there are at least two other people out there, and potentially more than that, who have the virus and have given the virus to the people that we’re dealing with now, but we can’t identify them as yet,” Mr Andrews said.

“We may never be able to, but we’re all working as hard as we can to find every single case. That relies upon people coming forward and getting tested and doing so really fast.”

New exposure sites revealed on Saturday include a swim school in Point Cook, a burger restaurant in Altona North and multiple supermarkets in the city’s west.

“So many of these transmissions, and others that we will find in the coming days, will have been because people were visiting others,” the Premier said. “They shouldn’t have been doing that.”

Outbreak spreads to Flemington housing tower as exposure list grows

A 20-storey public housing tower at 130 Racecourse Road in Flemington has been listed as a tier-2 exposure site from August 3-6.

COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said eight of the new cases were part of a single family household in the Flemington tower which is home to at least 400 people. One of the family members is a student from Al-Taqwa College.

“Those eight positive cases relocated two days ago and last night, and they are now in alternative and safe accommodation,” he said.

COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar on Saturday.Credit:Scott McNaughton

The tower is one of nine blocks across Flemington, North Melbourne and Kensington that was placed under an immediate hard lockdown during Melbourne’s second wave.

Residents on the 17th floor â€" the same floor as the ill family â€" have been designated tier-1 primary close contacts, meaning they must stay in their apartments for 14 days. The other 19 floors are considered a tier-2 exposure site, Mr Weimar explained, meaning other residents would all need to be tested and isolate until a negative result.

Abdiqifar Ahmed from not-for-profit organisation AMSSA Youth Connect, which supported the high-rise residents in 2020, said his organisation had been preparing for a tower outbreak since new cases were found at Al-Taqwa College two days ago.

“There’s at least 10 Al-Taqwa families that live across all the towers,” he said.

Health authorities have identified 87 close contacts in other towers and housing accommodation, and 62 of those tests had returned negative so far by Saturday afternoon.

AMSSA on Saturday was tracking down exactly where each Al-Taqwa College family was so as to “get a head start” in case more tested positive, in order to support them with culturally appropriate food as well as medical and schooling supplies.

Messaging to public tower residents states that primary close contacts would be relocated “where appropriate”, or supported while they stay in their apartments.

A pop-up testing site was being set up at 130 Racecourse Road on Saturday.Credit:Luis Enrique

Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass found the government’s decision to lock down nine public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington with no warning on July 4 last year violated the human rights of about 3000 tenants.

Mr Ahmed said his organisation hoped health authorities would continue to remove positive families if possible to avoid the widespread lockdowns seen last year.

“Obviously, comparing to last year it was really terrible because it had a massive toll on so many people. Every single person was locked down irrespective of their status â€" they didn’t take that into consideration,” he said.

“I hope this time around, it’s handled more efficiently and affected people are removed, are taken to a safer location. Last time, everyone just got locked in and it [the virus] spread more.”

Community Health service Cohealth on Saturday established a pop-up testing site outside 130 Racecourse Road, and has been running pop-up vaccine clinics at public housing sites in the north and west for the past six weeks.

Cory Memery, founder of the Public Housing Residents Network, said he was “devastated” by the news that high-rise tenants had again become sick with COVID-19.

“I’m nearly in tears here,” he told The Age. “People in public housing we all did the right things [after last year’s lockdowns] and this has happened again.”

Mr Memery, who is a resident at the Carlton public housing towers where dozens of people became infected in Melbourne’s second wave, said he had long believed positive cases should be taken to hotel quarantine as soon as they were found.

The government was highly criticised for its handling of the lockdown of nine public housing towers in winter last year.Credit:Getty

“I’ve strongly believed that since last year,” he said. “In the block that I’m in, there’s only one lift at the moment, people congregate in the foyer.”

Last year’s tower lockdowns invited widespread condemnation with high levels of police and even fenced-in exercise areas set up for residents at one stage.

“That was ridiculous, I don’t think they’ll ever make that mistake again,” Mr Memery said.

“The most important thing is the cultural diversity of the people there â€" we need messaging in all the languages of people who live in the estate and if we go into lockdown, they need food and medicine and food for their pets.”

Greens MP Ellen Sandell said her office was aware of at least 18 other primary close contacts within a public housing tower in North Melbourne.

High-density public housing residents are a prioritised vaccine group regardless of their age.

Since the tower lockdowns almost one year ago, each high-rise public housing tower in the north and west now has a medical facility and a nurse on-site â€" with 100 residents from different cultural backgrounds employed as “health concierges” to bring tower residents forward to get medical treatment.

The Premier would not say if the week-long lockdown would be extended.Credit:Scott McNaughton

Meanwhile, Cricket Victoria is in discussion with the Department of Health after the Junction Oval indoor centre was named as a tier-1 exposure site. A positive case was at the facility on Wednesday night from 7.30pm to 11pm as players from numerous clubs trained.

The positive case was a grade cricketer from Melbourne’s north-west, meaning a considerable number of players who trained that evening will need to go into isolation.

Two schools were also added to the exposure-site list on Friday evening and closed for deep cleaning after two students tested positive. Warringa Park specialist school in Hoppers Crossing and Heathdale Christian College are both listed as tier-2 sites.

Another school sent an email to parents on Friday evening saying that health authorities are investigating a positive case who attended the Islamic College of Melbourne in July. All staff, students and visitors of the college are now considered close contacts.

Victoria this week went from zero new cases to another lockdown in just over a day, after a teacher at Al-Taqwa College in Truganina and her husband, who live in the western suburbs, tested positive.

There were more than 43,000 tests, and 22,335 vaccinations were administered across the state on Friday. More than 600 vaccinations were administered at the Al-Taqwa College pop-up testing site over the past two days.

Rachael Dexter is a reporter for the Sunday Age.

Abbir Dib is a breaking reporter at The Age

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