Melbourne is on edge as the threat of another coronavirus lockdown looms with fears the growing outbreak will develop into a deadly third wave of the virus for Victoria.
Infectious disease expert, Dr Jane Halton, told Today if authorities see a significant increase in case numbers they will “consider very, very seriously a short, sharp lockdown”.
“It depends on how many additional cases are discovered, but we know about 80 sites connected to people they are trying to track so it’s a pretty big effort and I think quite worrying,” Dr Halton said.
“This has all the hallmarks of quite a risky situation – so yeah I am worried.
“I know no one wants (a lockdown) to happen, but I do think a short sharp one as opposed to a long painful one all our friends in Victoria suffered through last year is better – can we remind ourselves we don’t want this to happen again.”
She said the pressure on testing facilities due to the outbreak was worrying, with some people being turned away from several locations because of capacity issues.
On Wednesday, Dr Stephen Parnis, who works in emergency departments across three of the city’s biggest hospitals, said the next 24 hours were “absolutely critical” to control the 15-case cluster.
This content first appear on 9news