COMING days will be critical to determine when Victoria might come out of this snap lockdown, a leading epidemiologist warns.
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Deakin University epidemiology lead Catherine Bennett says the last outbreak showed mystery cases could pop up quickly in Melbourne or regional Victoria and it was vital authorities had potential exposure sites under control.
How quickly the numbers get under control, Professor Bennett said would depend on how confident authorities were in identifying transmission sources.
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Professor Bennett was concerned about the lack of detail from the government in following up close contacts, particularly given the highly contagious and dangerous nature of this Delta strain.
"Quite high numbers went into quarantine last time but they didn't tell us how long they had the virus before," Professor Bennett said. "Everyone went into quarantine but before then we don't know how many were infectious. If they were, we don't know whether there was a case that came from this."
Professor Bennett said the danger was in missing exposure sites and potential risk areas.
She remained optimistic in tracking through this lockdown because the state had remained under strict regulations coming out of the last lockdown less than a fortnight ago.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews made clear on Wednesday the whole state was under lockdown, even though this latest outbreak was Melbourne-based, due to how quickly the virus spread last month.
Impacted areas included Ballan, Barwon Heads and Mildura.
Anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms is urged to get a COVID test: 43 11 1571.
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