Victoria's Acting Premier James Merlino has urged all Victorians to get vaccinated as soon as possible, with primary and secondary contacts of the Melbourne cluster having jumped to more than 15,000 people.
Victoria reported four new local COVID-19 infections on Friday morning, hours after the state plunged into a week-long lockdown and as authorities continued to scramble to contain an outbreak now at 30 cases.
There are 1,452 people now identified as primary contacts - or close contacts - associated with the Whittlesea and Port of Melbourne outbreaks, with one person the link between the two.
Authorities have said the state is dealing with the highly infectious B161 variant, which was first detected in India.
Victorian testing boss Jeroen Weimar identified a number of new exposure sites on Friday. These included a number of high-risk social venues such as bars and clubs, where there are "significant numbers of people in close proximity", he said.
Mr Weimar urged those who had visited the sites to get tested as soon as possible.
Mr Merlino said he would be asking for additional 160 ADF staff to help state contract tracers over the coming fortnight.
“If we have those additional ADF staff pairing up with authorised officers, we are effectively doubling our capacity to do that really important work over the next few weeks,” he said.
Vaccine push
There were 17,223 vaccine doses administered on Thursday - a new daily record for the state.
Victoria's mass vaccination centres began administering Pfizer shots for anyone aged 40 to 49 from Friday.
Himself in that age group, Mr Merlino said he would be getting his vaccine after the press conference and urged all those above the age of 40 in addition to other eligible groups to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
"I will be getting my vaccination today," he told reporters on Friday morning.
"As soon as you are eligible, get a booking and get vaccinated. This is our best and fastest way out of the pandemic."
There had been reports of people waiting hours on the phone to try and book a vaccination appointment on Thursday after the government announced the system would open to 40 to 49 year olds.
Authorities reported 77,000 calls in the space of 15 minutes.
Mr Merlino said the state had now doubled capacity in its booking centres to more than 630 people.
An online booking system would also open in coming weeks, he added.
Mr Weimar said the state has been recording an average of 50,000 doses per week in recent weeks.
"We can double that number and we are on track to do that with the numbers we are seeing over the last few days," he said.
Friday's caseload came from 47,662 coronavirus test results received on Thursday, up from 40,411 on Wednesday.
Two new cases were acquired overseas and are currently in hotel quarantine. There are 39 active cases in total across the state.
The new number of cases is down from 11 on Thursday.
Victorians are now in their fourth lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic.
People can only leave home for five reasons: to shop for food and essential items, to provide or receive care, for exercise, work or study, or to get vaccinated.
Mr Merlino has said the federal government is to blame for the outbreak, pinning it on the sluggish vaccine rollout and failures in hotel quarantine.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told the ABC on Thursday night just 500,000 Australians had been fully vaccinated, and at the start of the day there were still 74 aged care homes across the country that had not been inoculated.
The new lockdown is the longest in Australia since JobKeeper ended in March.
Mr Hunt on Friday confirmed the Commonwealth would not provide any financial support to affected businesses, with the state government preparing to announce a support package.
With AAP
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Victoria reports four new local coronavirus cases as contacts of Melbourne cluster swell to 15,000 - SBS News
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