Australia news LIVE NSW continues to set record daily number of COVID-19 cases as Victoria Queensland cases grow

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A COVID-19 case, linked to two schools, has been detected in the NSW regional city of Dubbo.

Dubbo West Public School will be closed today after a member of the school community tested positive for COVID-19.

COVID testing line in Dubbo earlier this year. Credit:Leonie Ward

“Our school site will be non-operational Wednesday 11 August, 2021 for the on-site attendance of staff and students as a precaution,” Principal Eileen Day said in a note to parents and carers yesterday.

“All staff and students are asked to self-isolate until you receive further advice.”

Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders said the case had been linked to Dubbo West Public School and Macquarie Anglican Grammar School.

Parents at the school, which has over 500 students in pre-kindergarten to year 12, were last night told to check their emails for an “important” notice from Headmaster Craig Mansour.

Mr Saunders said the case was identified after becoming symptomatic on Monday and the person was tested on Tuesday.

“Nine close contacts who have been identified to date are in isolation, and either have been tested, or will be tested as soon as possible,” he said in a Facebook post last night.

“Investigations and contact tracing is continuing. It isn’t yet known how transmission occurred.

“Fragments of COVID-19 have been detected in Dubbo sewage samples taken on August 3 and August 5. While Dubbo residents are urged to limit their movements in the community at this time, widespread COVID-19 testing is critical.”

He said there would be increased testing capacity at the Dubbo Showground drive-through clinic, opening at 8am today with entry via Wingewarra Street, and testing services were being established at Wellington Health Service from 10am.

“The COVID SAFE clinic at the Manera Plaza, 77 Myall Street has undergone intensive cleaning and will be operating as normal between 8am and 4.30pm, seven days a week,” Mr Saunders said.

The Central West city of Orange and the surrounding shires of Blayney and Cabonne, about 150km to the south of Dubbo, went into a snap seven-day lockdown last month after one case of COVID-19 and several exposure sites.

Victoria’s Health Department added several new exposure sites late last night, including bus routes, a train line and a nail salon.

Melbourne bus routes 426 and 460, which both run through Melbourne’s north west, have been listed as tier-1 exposure sites for Thursday, August 5. The 460 bus is also a tier-1 exposure site for Wednesday, August 4.

The Sunbury train line from Watergardens to Sunshine stations has been listed as a tier-2 site for August 4, 5 and 7. And AK Nails Beauty at Woodgrove Shopping Centre in Melton, in Melbourne’s west, has been labelled a tier-1 site for Sunday, August 1.

CS Square shopping centre in Melbourne’s north west. Credit: Supplied

Victorian authorities are also concerned about the CS Square shopping centre in Caroline Springs, in Melbourne’s north west, after more than half of yesterday’s COVID cases were linked to the site.

In case you missed it, everyone who worked at that shopping centre over four days will now have to go into quarantine for two weeks.

Victoria’s COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar says the cases linked to that shopping centre are spread “across a number of different … retail units and people”.

A doctor who works at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital has also tested positive to COVID-19. However, the hospital says the doctor was not infectious while he was working at the hospital.

The Health Department says it is investigating whether the man was infectious while working at private medical rooms next door to the hospital at 48 Flemington Road on Monday, August 9. The hospital and medical rooms share common areas.

The doctor is one of the 20 locally acquired COVID cases announced in Victoria yesterday.

A COVID-19 cluster in a western Sydney mental health unit has emerged with more than two cases confirmed, as staff are asked to continue working despite being identified as close contacts.

Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District confirmed last night that two clients admitted to the Mental Health Centre at Nepean Hospital had tested positive to COVID-19 and “additional cases” had also been identified as linked to the cases.

There has been a COVID-19 exposure in Nepean Hospital’s mental health unit.Credit:Wolter Peeters

An email sent to staff on Tuesday afternoon by the director of Mental Health at Nepean-Blue Mountains Local Health District Matthew Russell confirmed there had been “a COVID-positive consumer” and said staff who had worked in various parts of the unit since last Wednesday evening were considered close contacts.

However, the email suggested that some staff members who were classified as close contacts would be “advised” they still needed to attend work.

Read the full story here.

Melbourne’s lockdown is set to be extended beyond Thursday, with the majority of new cases not in quarantine during their infectious periods and authorities concerned over undetected spread in the western suburbs.

Two senior state government sources told this masthead they were looking for a run of several days in which a much greater proportion of new cases, if not all, had been in quarantine for their infectious periods before the lockdown can lift.

Just five of Tuesday’s 20 new cases fit that criteria, up from one of Monday’s 11 and none of Sunday’s 11.

More on this story here.

Good morning and thanks for your company.

It’s Wednesday, 11 August. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.

Here’s everything you need to know before we get started.

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