The Department of Health and Human services said in an update on Thursday that it was expecting more cases to emerge from 10 testing sites and contact tracing across several northern suburbs.
The new cases came as it was revealed that the boy attended East Preston Islamic College on Monday and Tuesday despite members of his family remaining in quarantine at home with active COVID-19 infections, and that the virus had spread as members of the extended family moved between households.
Seventy-three of the student’s close contacts, 400 of their contacts and 120 public housing residents were in self-isolation on Thursday.
Mr Andrews remained confident that he would be able to ease coronavirus restrictions on Sunday, with an expected announcement of a reopening of hospitality and retail.
Associate Professor Hassan Vally, an epidemiologist based at La Trobe University, warned, however, that the outbreak would test multiple aspects of Victoria’s public health response.
“We shouldn’t panic, but this has all the elements of the kind of thing that can pose a problem,†he said
“We have got schools. We have got housing towers. We have got multiple people living under one roof. And we have the language issue.
