Gea Local: Victoria COVID LIVE updates: Five new local cases, record vaccination and testing numbers, exposure sites top 150

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The Victorian government is due to give a COVID-19 update at 12.30pm AEST. If you can’t see the live stream below, please refresh your web browser.

Whether Victoria’s 7-day lockdown will be extended is a “day by day” proposition, authorities are saying.

Asked repeatedly by journalists at today’s press conference, both Health Minister Martin Foley and testing chief Jereon Weimar wouldn’t give any indication on the government’s position on whether lockdown could go longer than a week.

“It is too early to make that announcement,” Mr Foley said.

“Today the second day of seven days.

“We will continue to work through the evidence as it comes in, day by day, and keep Victorians informed”.

Faults at some of Melbourne’s mass vaccination centres this morning that saw delayed starts and people turned away have been remedied according to testing Chief Jeroen Weimar.

“We did have a bit of a problem logging on at [Convention Centre]and the Exhibition building... the other sides were unaffected,” he said.

“The two of our sites had problems logging on this morning, those technical faults were remedied by 10:30 and we were vaccinating people throughout that time.”

Mr Weimar apologised to anyone caught up in the delays, and said anyone who wanted to have a walk-up appointment for the AstraZeneca vaccine today is welcome to do so.

“I apologise for the inconvenience they suffered but please, both sites have been up and running again.“

“Please check on the website before you go what the length of the queues are at the moment. We will ensure that if you are in a queue, we want to make sure you get vaccinated that day and we do not want people waiting all day.

“The state will be able to sustain around 20,000 vaccines a day for the next few weeks at least based on the current supply, Mr Weimar said.

“We are of course keen to get as many people vaccinated but we can only go as fast as the supply allows us. Please, bear with us and if you are trying to get through to book your spot, we are booking slots every single day. The call centre will continue to be available and we will get you through in the coming weeks.”

Testing chief Jereon Weimar has given a quick update on some of the various sites with known positive cases:

Stratton Finance: Mr Weimar said other than the 13 employees who had tested positive at the Port Melbourne workplace, no other employees had yet tested positive.

Nightclubs: The five nightclubs and bars of concern (Three Monkeys in Prahran, the Somewhere Bar in Prahran, the Sporting Globe in Mordialloc, the Palace Hotel in South Melbourne and the Local in Port Melbourne) have produced 500 close contacts, and Mr Weimar said just under 20 per cent of those had returned a negative result.

COVID testing Commander Jeroen Weimer.Credit:Chris Hopkins

”I’m expecting to see negative results coming in over the next few days,” he said.

“We have one incident of transmission between two people went and had a beer there together on the Sunday and we will continue to obviously work with the community to understand if there is any other transmission in the area.”

He said the major focus for contact tracers today would be all the location linked to the food distribution centre worker.

Around 62 per cent of the 3000 primary and close contacts in the Victorian contact tracing system have returned an initial negative test, according to Victoria’s testing chief Jeroen Weimar.

“In the past five days, over 170,000 tests have been completed, we have 35 positive cases in the outbreak and we now have 3000 primary and close contacts in the system who are now isolating,” he said.

Mr Weimar said there was less concern now about the possibility of community transmission at two AFL matches and Highpoint shopping centre.

“I am pleased to see we are seeing 80-100 per cent of negative cases, negative test results for all of the primary close contacts associated with Highpoint,” Mr Weimar said.

About 70 per cent of those identified as primary close contacts at most the Collingwood-Port Adelaide AFL match at the MCG and the Essendon-North Melbourne game at Marvel Stadium had also returned initial negative results.

“An encouraging step forward, no evidence at this point of transmission at those games and we will continue to chase down the remaining people who have not yet returned a negative result,” Mr Weimar said.

UPDATED: The four new cases from the City of Whittlesea are all direct contacts of the case who worked at a large food distribution centre while infectious.

“They showed no signs of the COVID symptoms themselves,” Health Minister Martin Foley said.

Mr Foley said the four new cases today linked to the food distribution workers were close social contacts of the worker.

Last night the Department of Health issued an extensive list of tier-1 exposure sites linked to the worker which are deemed high-risk.

“The high-risk exposure sites are a number of these grocery stores in both the northern and south-eastern suburbs, and they were over a number of short visits on May 18 and May 19,” Mr Foley said.

“There was a further Epping grocery store that was listed for a much longer period of visit by this particular person as well as a Mill Park car wash.

“Residents in the Epping, Dandenong, Craigieburn and other close-by suburbs will receive text messages urging them to get tested if they have symptoms or have spent time at exposure sites.”

Four of the cases were in isolation for one day before they returned a test result.

UPDATED: A number of men have been brought to the ground by police on Victoria Street in North Melbourne after the anti-lockdown protest turned violent this afternoon.

At least five men have been arrested, with one man bleeding from the head.

A bleeding man is treated after violence between a small group of protesters and police.Credit:Ashleigh McMillan

Police deployed OC spray during the brawl.

Victoria Street is currently closed between Leveson and Chetwynd streets.

An estimated 50-60 protesters turned out for today’s protest but were in small groups scattered around the protest area.

Click here to read the story.

A man has water poured on his eyes after police and protesters clashed on Saturday.Credit:Ashleigh McMillan

Four of today’s new five cases recorded are from the city of Whittlesea, while one is connected to the Port Melbourne workplace outbreak.

Health Minister Martin Foley has promised more details on those cases shortly when testing chief Jereon Weimar steps up.

At least seven people - most without masks - have been arrested by police. Many protesters had arrived with signs stating ‘this all ends when we say no’ and ‘it’s all lies’.

A group of around 20 protesters were shepherded out of Flagstaff Gardens by police and into the streets of North Melbourne.

Protesters briefly stood on the corner of Victoria and Capel Street yelling at police who had assembled across the road to block them from regrouping and returning to the gardens.

Click here to read the story.

Police attend an anti-lockdown protest in the city on Saturday.Credit:Ashleigh McMillan

Multiple people have been arrested by police and fined at an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne’s CBD.

A heavy police presence has surrounded Flagstaff Gardens where protesters against vaccinations and Victoria’s seven-day lockdown gathered on Saturday afternoon.

A woman is led away by Victoria Police during an anti-lockdown protest on Saturday.Credit:Ashleigh McMillan

One woman was detained by police outside Queen Victoria Market.

She was heard yelling, “I will never stop fighting for my rights and my freedoms” and “COVID is a hoax, do you think your mask is protecting you?“

Another man who was holding an Australian red ensign flag was marched through the park by police before he was detained and his information was taken.

Police were seen checking IDs and escorting protesters back to their cars on Saturday.