Marvel Stadium listed as exposure site after COVID case attended AFL game
Marvel Stadium is now listed as a COVID-19 exposure site after a confirmed case attended an AFL game.
Today the Department of Health confirmed a person who attended the Essendon v North Melbourne game on Sunday afternoon was infected with the virus.
People sitting on Level 1 between Aisles 5 and 28 or Level 3 in between Aisles 6 and 29 must get tested and stay isolated until they have received a negative result.
The Department of Health is working with the AFL and Marvel Stadium to contact spectators.
Some people with the closest contact to the positive case will be directly provided more specific advice from the Department of Health.
Anyone else at the stadium on Sunday who was not in those areas will be advised to check for symptoms and be tested if any develop
Melbourne COVID-19 cluster expands
The COVID-19 cluster in Melbourne’s north has ballooned to 15, after six new cases were detected in the community.
All 15 cases have been linked back to a Wollert man who contracted the virus while in hotel quarantine in Adelaide.
Nine of the total infections are linked to two families, with five connected to Stratton Finance in Port Melbourne, where one of the family cases worked.
Acting Premier James Merlino said he “would not rule out” further restrictions and imposing a lockdown, with concern growing over the number of days people in the cluster had been out in the community.
The outbreak comes as an infected person attended an AFL match at the MCG at the weekend, with thousands of fans at the game
“The next 24 hours are critical,” he said.
“Everyone is linked at this stage, but we are concerned about the number and the kind of exposure sites.
“I can’t rule out making further changes.”
Mr Merlino acknowledged interstate supporters from South Australia, who had travelled to the MCG to watch Port Adelaide play Collingwood, were at potential risk of infection.
“They will be chased up like anybody,” he said.
The positive MCG case sat in zone four, level one, of the Great Southern Stand, at the Punt Road end of the ground, to watch Collingwood’s nail-biting loss to Port Adelaide on Sunday, the Department of Health said.
Fans seated in bays M1 to M16 will be contacted and told to get tested and isolate but that advice could be extended to more parts of the stadium after security footage is reviewed.
The 100,000-seat venue was less than a quarter full for the Power’s one-point win, according to Austadiums, but thousands of fans may still have been sitting in the affected section.
At this point, AFL matches will go ahead with crowds despite the outbreak, but they will be subject to changes and masks, Mr Merlino said.
However, decisions on crowd capacity may change, depending on the next 24 hours.
How Melbourne’s COVID-19 cases are connected
Case one: Man in his 30s got tested on Sunday.
Case two: Man in his 70s who went with case one to get tested.
Case three + four: woman in her 70s and child, detected after being deemed close contacts.
Case five: Had a business meeting with case one.
Cases six-nine: Same family unit as case five, but different households.
Cases 10-12: Workplace contacts of case nine. The workplace is a finance firm in Port Melbourne.
Case 13: Another contact of case one.
Cases 14-15: Workplace contacts of case nine.
Lockdown possible, hundreds of close contacts tracked
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said possible lockdown restrictions would hinge on further review of the epidemiology of today’s new cases.
Health officials have identified 301 primary close contacts.
Professor Sutton said it was a “concern” there had “been exposures over a number of days”.
Some of the cluster cases are known to have been infectious and out in the community since at least May 18.
Professor Sutton said contact tracers had performed “extraordinary work” to track cluster links “but there has been a lot of chasing to be done because we have had those individuals out in the community for some days”.
Health officials are still searching for the “missing link” in Melbourne’s cluster, an unknown person who contracted coronavirus from a Wollert man, who acquired the infection in South Australia hotel quarantine earlier this month.
The Melbourne cluster was infected by a “sub-lineage” of the Indian variant of the virus, Professor Sutton said, adding it “does not seem to be as bad” as the variant devastating India during its second wave.
More than 26,000 Victorians were tested overnight as people rushed to get tested as the outbreak grows.
Professor Sutton urged “hundreds of thousands” of Victorians who were eligible but unvaccinated to go and get their jabs.
“Many turned up” at vaccination sites yesterday, he said.
Coronavirus testing clinics across Melbourne were inundated again today after thousands of football fans were warned they may have been exposed.
Dozens of cars have lined up at the Northern Hospital testing site, with the first person arriving 90 minutes before doors opened.
‘Sitting on a knife’s edge’
The CSIRO’s Dr Rob Grenfell told Today the next few days will be crucial to determine whether Melbourne needs to be locked down.
“The next few days will tell us how harsh it will be – we are sitting on a knife’s edge here in Melbourne,” Dr Grenfell said.
Dr Grenfell said he had faith in Melbourne’s contact tracing system and noted at this stage, there is just one cluster compared to three the last time the city was locked down.
“This virus isn’t going away. It is here and it is going to eventually establish itself in this country, so we have to be very cautious,” he said.
“The solution to this is obviously vaccination – I urge everyone to start considering vaccination and do this as a matter of haste.”
Eerie sense of deja-vu for Victoria
Former Australian Medical Association (AMA) president and GP Dr Mukesh Haikerwal said Melbourne was experiencing a “pretty grim” feeling of deja-vu.
“We literally are looking down the barrel of what happened last year,” he said.
“It started very quietly and all of a sudden, we had significant lockdowns.
“We really don’t want to go into that again.
“We don’t want to get in the situation that they’ve had overseas of course, where more and more people are having to go to hospital and go into ICU.
“So we’ve really got to nail this now.”
