Fears Victorian Covid outbreak has already jumped the NSW border after infected holidaymaker goes on a 1,765km roadtrip through four towns including Jervis Bay
Jervis Bay #JervisBay
New South Wales has been put on high alert after an interstate traveller from Melbourne tested positive for Covid-19 one day after a 1,765km roadtrip.
The confirmed case was in Jervis Bay, Goulburn, Hyams Beach, and Vincentia while potentially infectious on May 23 and 24.
NSW Health said the holidaymaker reported the onset of symptoms on May 25 and was only tested on Monday, almost a week later.
The Covid case had left for their trip just days before Victoria’s snap seven-day stay-at-home measures took effect on May 27.
– Goulburn – Shell Coles Express Big Merino, 1/3 Sowerby Street: Monday 24 May, 10-11.30am.
– Goulburn – Trapper’s Bakery, 4 Sowerby Street: Monday 24 May 10.30-11.30am.
– Hyams Beach – Cooked Goose Café (formerly Hyams Beach Café), 76 Cyrus Street: Sunday 23 May, 10am-12pm.
– Jervis Bay – Green Patch campground, Booderee National Park, Village Bay Road: Sunday 23 May all day, Monday 24 May until 9am.
– Vincentia – Coles Vincentia Shopping Village, 21 The Wool Road: Sunday 23 May, 12-1pm.
If you were at any of the following venues of concern at the times listed, please immediately call the NSW Health contact tracing team on 1800 943 553, get tested and isolate until you receive further information from NSW Health.
The roadtripper began their journey on May 23 first stopped off at Cooked Goose Café in picturesque Hyams Beach at 10am to 12pm after a long drive.
They then drove a little farther to Coles in Vincentia at 12pm to 1pm to get supplies for their overnight camping trip.
Next they pitched a tent at Green Patch campground in Booderee National Park on Jervis Bay and stayed there until about 9am on May 24.
On the way home to Melbourne they stopped at Shell Coles Express in the shadow of the Big Merino in Goulburn sometimes between 10.30am and 11.30am.
Across the road they munched on some tasty pies from the legendary Trapper’s Bakery between 10.30am and 11.30am, before driving home.
About 6.5 million Victorians were ordered into lockdown at 11.59pm last Thursday after a rapidly-spreading Covid-19 outbreak in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
Although the Gladys Berejiklian’s government has been reticent to introduce border closures or lockdowns, there are now fears the state may be forced to impose similar restrictions to Victoria.
The outbreak facing Melbourne, which has been linked to a highly infectious double mutant Indian strain, grew to 54 cases on Tuesday, including nine new locally-acquired infections.
Health authorities across the country remain on edge after it was revealed that complete strangers had been infected by walking past Covid-positive cases.
Victoria’s Department of Health said ‘four or five’ cases emerged from ‘brushing past’ strangers who unwittingly transmitted the virus.
The state’s Covid-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar told reporters earlier today the outbreak is the fastest moving seen anywhere in Australia during the pandemic.
‘What we’re seeing now is people are brushing past each other in a small shop, they are going to a display home, they are looking at photos in a Telstra shop,’ he said.
‘This is relatively speaking, relatively fleeting. They do not know each other’s names, and that is very different from what we have been before.
‘We are used to, with previous variants, transmission occurring in the home, in the workplace, where people know each other already, not all of those big social settings. These are quite different.’
The outbreak, which originated in hotel quarantine in South Australia last month, is ‘playing out a bit differently to earlier recent outbreaks’ in Victoria, which resulted in few cases and three-day circuit breaker lockdowns.
Despite the concerns, Health Minister Martin Foley said contact tracers will be able to ‘get on top’ of the outbreak.
‘I am confident that we are doing everything we possibly can to get on top of this and I’m confident that all of us as Victorians are out there willing this thing to be over and willing us all to get on top of it and by behaving in the right way,’ he said.
NSW Health said they are continuing to investigate the movements of the interstate traveller in and around the Jervis Bay – and the department expects the list of venues to grow very soon.
On Wednesday morning, NSW will announce a number of new Covid-testing facilities in the exposed areas.
‘NSW Health is in the process of increasing testing capacity in the area, including a drive-through pop-up COVID-19 testing clinic in Huskisson,’ the department said.
Read more