Alarming new way the Vic outbreak is spreading
Victorian authorities say people are becoming infected with COVID after just "brushing past" strangers with the virus.
Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar said at least four of the state's 54 locally transmitted cases have come from "fleeting" contact between Victorians,
“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.
“This is stranger to stranger transmission.”
He said the ease with which the virus is spreading may be a feature of the Indian variant.
“We are used with previous variants, we are more used to transmission roccurring in the home, in the workplace, where people know each other already, not all of those big social settings,” he said. “These are quite different.”
“We have seen transmission in these places with very fleeting contact. We have transmission in places like the Telstra store in South Melbourne, JMD Grocers, the display home we talked about a few days ago, I’d add Craigieburn Central shopping centre.
“They are all examples of transmission with very limited contact. With previous variants, we are more used to transmission occurring in the home, in the workplace, where people know each other already, not at all of those big social settings. These are quite different.”
If anyone has been to any of the following sites in the past two weeks, they should come forward and get tested:
• Craigieburn Central
• Bay Street shops in Port Melbourne
• Clarendon Street in the South Melbourne
• Pacific Epping, also known as the Epping Plaza
• The Epping North shopping centre
• Broadway Reservoir