Victorian health officials have confirmed that 11 of the 12 staff members exposed to COVID-19 at Melbourne airport cafe have returned negative tests.
The Brunetti cafe at Melbourne Airport Terminal 4 was listed by the government as a key exposure site following an employee of the cafe testing positive on Thursday after working on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Victoria’s COVID-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar confirmed all but one of the staff who worked at the cafe had returned negative results.
“The most important and concerning (line of inquiry) was the cafe at the airport,” Mr Weimar said. “All 12 staff have been tested and 11 are negative.”
However, health officials will nervously await a 12th and final test of Brunetti’s Tuesday staff. They expect a result from that staffer later on Saturday.
“We have one more test result we are waiting on,” Mr Weimar said. “That will come through later today. (Overall) it’s an encouraging start.”
All 38 customers served at the cafe have also been contacted by health officials.
“We got the details from them yesterday; they were all followed up last night and this morning,” Mr Weimar said.
“We are interviewing and testing all of them to establish if they have had any exposure.”
Mr Andrews also confirmed the one new case recorded in Victoria overnight was a close contact of a staff member at the Holiday Inn, where the cluster has grown to 14.
That positive case brought the number of active cases in the state to 20.
“In terms of the Holiday Inn, that means we have 14 cases linked to that particular premises,” he said.
“The additional case is a social primary close contact, a friend, of one of the Holiday Inn workers.
“Overnight and within eight hours of that test coming to us, all 38 household primary social close contacts of that person have been contacted. They have been locked down, and we have already begun the process of testing each of those 38 people.”
Mr Andrews also detailed that there have been 996 close contacts identified in the Holiday Inn cluster.
