Chadstone Is the Latest Location to Join Victoria's Now 271-Venue List of Exposure Sites
Positive cases visited the shopping centre last week.
This time last week, Melbourne was enjoying the pandemic's version of normality — so much so that a new rebate scheme to entice diners to eat out in the CBD had just been announced. But a lot can change in just seven days, as Victoria's current COVID-19 cluster has shown. The state is now on day four of a seven-day lockdown, case numbers have been growing and the list of exposure sites just keeps ballooning, too.
When the first cases were revealed last week, two venues were named on Monday afternoon. The list had gone up to 43 by Wednesday morning, and then hit a whopping 83 locations on Thursday. Now, on Monday, May 31, it has reached 271 locations. So if you've spent your time in lockdown binging whatever you can stream and constantly refreshing the Victorian Department of Health's rundown of exposure sites, that's perfectly understandable.
Among the latest inclusions, Chadstone Shopping Centre is one of the big ones. The alert covers seven locations within the overall site over a single day including the entire centre itself — as a Tier 2 site — from 11.53am–2pm on Wednesday, May 26. If you went shopping during that window of time, you'll now need to get tested immediately and self-isolate until you receive a negative result. If you went to Bakers Delight between 12.40–12.45pm, Zimmerman between 12.50–1.30pm, Optus between 12.27–1.17pm, Breadtop between 1.03–1.37pm and Woolworths between 1.16–1.56pm, you fall into the same category. And if you were at Yokozuna from 11.55am–12.52pm, you were at a Tier 1 site, which requires getting tested immediately and self-isolating for 14 days regardless of the result.
Other recent additions to the list include the 412 and 525 PVT bus routes at various times on Wednesday, May 26 and Thursday, May 27 (all Tier 1); Target and Coles at Point Cook Shopping Centre from 3.30–5.30pm on Wednesday, May 26 (Tier 1); and various sites at Northland Shopping Centre on Saturday, May 22 (including Tier 1 for H&M between 2.30–3.50pm).
Obviously, with 271 places now named, the list goes on — also spanning the likes of Dan Murphy's Brunswick East (Tier 2, from 2.30–3pm on Saturday, May 22), Brighton Beach Hotel (Tier 2, from 3.09–4.52pm on Sunday, May 23) and the La Trobe University library (Tier 1 on level one and Tier 2 elsewhere, all from 11.45am–2.30pm on Tuesday, May 25) as well.
Melburnians can keep an eye on the local list of exposure sites at the Department of Health website — as usual, it will change as more sites are identified.
For those looking to get tested, you can find a list of testing sites including regularly updated waiting times also on the Department of Health website.
And, has remained the case throughout the pandemic, Melburnians should be looking out for coughs, fever, sore or scratchy throat, shortness of breath, or loss of smell or taste, symptoms-wise.
For further details on the latest exposure sites and updated public health advice, see the Department of Health website.
Top image: Google Maps.