Up to 600 people associated with the Australian Open have been told to isolate after being identified as casual contacts of a quarantine hotel worker who has tested positive to coronavirus.
Among them is Greek player, Stefanos Tsitsipas, who had beaten Australian Alex De Minaur in his first match of the ATP Cup just before the news was announced by Premier Daniel Andrews in an emergency press conference overnight.
READ MORE: Stefanos Tsitsipas crushes Australian young gun Alex De Minaur in ATP Cup.
Mr Andrews said the hundreds of tennis players and support staff told to self isolate and await a negative test result.
Tennis officials late on Wednesday night issued a statement about lead-up events for the Australian Open.
“We will work with everyone involved to facilitate testing as quickly as possible,” Tennis Australia, organisers of the February 8-21 event, said.
“There will be no matches at Melbourne Park on Thursday. An update on the schedule for Friday will be announced later today.”
Restrictions reintroduced:
Victoria has reintroduced mandatory masks indoors, a cap on gatherings to 15 people in a household, and the 75 per cent return to work, scheduled to begin on Monday, has been paused.
It follows the diagnosis of a 26-year-old Noble Park, who had been serving as a resident support officer as part of the Australian Open quarantine program.
The infected man last worked at the Grand Hyatt on January 29 and undertook a PCR nasal test at the end of that shift, returning a negative test result at that time.
He later developed symptoms and got tested, returning a positive result yesterday.
The case will be recorded as a community transmission, the day the state had celebrated reaching a milestone 28 days in a row without a locally acquired infection.
List of exposure sites in Melbourne’s south-east released:
Anyone who visited the following exposure sites at the specified times must be tested and isolate for 14 days:
- Club Noble in Noble Park from 2:36pm — 3:30pm on January 30
- Aces Sporting Club (Driving Range) in Keysborough from 10:00pm — 11:15pm on January 30
- Northpoint Café in Brighton from 8:10am — 9:30am on January 31
- Kmart in Keysborough from 4:00pm — 5:00pm on January 31
- Kmart in Brandon Park from 4:35pm — 5:10pm on January 31
- Coles in Springvale from 5:00pm — 6:00pm on January 31
- Bunnings in Springvale from 11:30am — 12:15pm on February 1
- Golf Academy in Heatherton from 5:19pm — 6:30pm on February 1
- Lululemon, DFO in Moorabbin from 5:00pm — 5:45pm on January 29
- Woolworths in Springvale from 6.30pm — 7.30pm on January 29
- Nakama Workshop in Clayton South from 11:15am — 12:00pm on February 1
- Sharetea in Springvale from 6:45pm — 7:30pm on February 1
- Kebab Kingz in West Melbourne from 11:24pm — 00:15am on February 1
- Exford Hotel in Melbourne from 11:00pm — 11:35pm on February 1
Mr Andrews said the 26-year-old worker had attended a social function in his capacity as a volunteer firefighter.
“We have been through FRV and CFA have been contacting brigades, they have been doing deep cleaning, they in turn have been contacting their members, their staff as well as their volunteers,” he said.
“We are confident people will get the information they need as quickly as possible.”
From Thursday all of the 13 major testing sites in the south-east of Melbourne will open early at 8:00am with additional drive-through lanes added. Additional testing sites will open in Brighton and Monash University.
