Victoria has recorded 21 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19, with almost half of those in the community for part of their infectious periods.
Key points:
- Ten of the 21 cases were in the community for some time before being diagnosed
- As a result, the number of exposure sites has grown to more than 450 venues across dozens of suburbs
- Unexpected wastewater detections have been found in Shepparton
The Health Department said 11 people were in quarantine for the duration of their infectious periods.
All of the new infections are linked to known cases, a positive sign after contact tracers raced to find the source of mystery cases driving the outbreak.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton yesterday said the recent mystery cases were a concern and getting on top of them "as much as possible" was a focus.
It is still not known exactly how the two cases at the start of the outbreak contracted COVID-19.
Fifteen of the 21 infections are linked to a growing outbreak spread across the northern suburb of Glenroy, sparked by unrelated mystery cases from multiple households.
"What we have seen as a result of these growing numbers of people every day is that we have multiple outbreaks with multiple exposure sites right across Melbourne," Health Minister Martin Foley said.
"And whilst we have genomic links, we still don't have a source of infections for a number of these positive cases."
The new cases were found from 33,675 test results processed on Friday.
Mr Foley said the state needed to get testing numbers back to about the 40,000-per-day mark seen earlier in the week.
"Because there is every chance if you don't get tested and you pass this virus on to someone else, then they will pass it on to more people," he said.
"We have positive cases in multiple suburbs across Melbourne and where we see delays between symptoms and making those decisions to get tested, we see the virus spread."
The number of exposure sites has continued to grow, with potential high-risk locations now listed in suburbs in Melbourne's west, north, east and south-east.
That includes the Chadstone Shopping Centre, a pharmacist in Carlton, the route 58 and 59 trams and the 411 and 412 bus routes.
Some residents of the Bosisto Street Residential Apartment Complex in Richmond will have to quarantine for 14 days after the block was listed as an exposure site across 12 days.
Some parts of the complex are tier 1, while other parts are tier 2.
Most of the new exposure sites are essential services or food venues only open for takeaway, under the rules of Melbourne's sixth lockdown.
Regional Victoria is out of lockdown but living under tightened restrictions.
On Friday evening, the Department of Health said it had detected unexpected COVID-19 fragments in wastewater in Shepparton.
The Shepparton catchment includes Shepparton, Kialla and small parts of Shepparton North and Orrvale.
Fragments have also been found in the Lakes Entrance area in Gippsland.
ABC News
)There were 29,490 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered in state-run centres on Friday, with a similar number delivered daily through the Commonwealth's GP and pharmacy rollout.
The state yesterday announced a goal to deliver 1 million vaccine doses in its hubs over the next five weeks.
From Monday, anyone over the age of 18 will be able to get the AstraZeneca inoculation at all state hubs, with an informed consent process.
The state had already begun to offer the AstraZeneca vaccine to younger Victorians at nine of its 50 hubs, which led to a noticeable uptick in the daily number of doses delivered.
Vaccination is the only way out of rolling lockdowns, according to leaders, with Premier Daniel Andrews saying the 1 million goal would see 60 per cent of people over 16 fully vaccinated by the end of September.
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Victoria records 21 new local COVID-19 cases, 10 in the community while infectious - ABC News
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