health worker wearing PPE walks past closed signed
(Image: AAP/Bianca De Marchi)

Sydney’s cluster has been linked to the Melbourne coronavirus spike. More revelations of mismanagement in Victoria. Early vaccine trials prove safe and effective. And the transfer from mother to unborn baby.

Sydney cluster linked to Melbourne cases

Melbourne’s coronavirus cases are the cause of Sydney’s headaches, genomic testing has revealed. Each of the 30 cases linked to the Crossroads Hotel in Casula can be traced back to patrons who’d visited Melbourne.

NSW recorded 13 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday — 10 linked to the Casula outbreak and three returned travellers.

The cluster has extended to a nearby gym, which is now closed for testing. An aged care home in Liverpool is also in lockdown after a pub-goer visited while infectious, and two pubs in the area have closed for deep cleaning after patrons who attended their venues tested postitive.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said her state would not go back into lockdown. Speaking on A Current Affair last night, Berejiklian said elimination wasn’t possible, and that it wasn’t realistic to shut down every time there was a cluster of cases: “We can’t keep shutting down and reopening, that is not a good way for us to manage the pandemic.”

New restrictions on pubs were introduced yesterday, with large venues to have full-time marshals enforcing COVID-19 safety plans.

Victoria’s COVID-19 mismanagement

Workers at Australian Food Group in Laverton North in Melbourne said they weren’t given information or guidance after a meat inspector tested positive for COVID-19 early this month. 

The company said it only knew about the outbreak because the worker self-reported. While the factory closed for deep cleaning, no information was provided about safety guidance despite calls to authorities. 

Meanwhile, authorities have confirmed a link between Black Lives Matter protesters in Melbourne and the public housing tower outbreak, but have not made public what that link is.

The protesters were unlikely to have caught the virus at the rally, which they attended on June 6, and may not be the original source of the public housing tower outbreak. 

Victoria has recorded another 238 cases overnight, and the death of one woman in her 90s.

From mum to bub

The first confirmed case of a baby contracting COVID-19 while still in the womb has been recorded in France, and the details outlined in science journal Nature Communications.

The baby presented with “neurological manifestations, similar to those described in adult patients”, with brain inflammation. The baby was discharged from hospital after 18 days, and the phenomenon is very rare.  

Vaccine safe so far

A human coronavirus vaccine trial conducted by Moderna in the US has shown it was safe and effective in the first phase of testing. 

An immune response was provoked in all 45 healthy volunteers, with none experiencing serious side effects. More than half had mild or moderate reactions ranging from pain at the injection site to fatigue, headache and chills. 

Volunteers had two vaccinations 28 days apart.