The ACT has gone into lockdown for seven days, after the territory recorded four positive casesof COVID-19.
Key points:
- The initial case — man in his 20s — had been infectious in the community since Sunday
- Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the new cases posed a “serious health risk”
- The snap shutdown, which began at 5:00pm, is the first time the ACT has entered lockdown since early in 2020
At midday, ACT authorities confirmed a man in his 20s from Gungahlin in Canberra’s north had tested positive to the virus and had been infectious in the community since Sunday.
Just after 5:00pm, Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman announced live on ABC Radio Canberra that three others had since tested positive in the ACT, all of them close contacts of the first case.
“I can report very hot off the press that we knew of nine really close contacts, so these were people who had prolonged and repeated exposure to our case,” she said.
“We know that three of those have given us additional positive cases, the other six have returned negative tests at this point in time.”
Authorities said the source of the man’s infection was unknown, with multiple exposure sites listed.
The government said the fresh outbreak represented the “most serious public health risk” the ACT had faced for 12 months.
It had previously been 105 days since the last case in the ACT —a diplomat in quarantine — and over a year since the last locally acquired case.
The ACT has been in lockdown since 5:00pm on Thursday. It is the first time the ACT has entered a lockdown of this nature since the early days of the pandemic.
List of ACT exposure sites
Anyone who has visited the following places during the below times has been told to immediately get tested and quarantine for 14 days.
| Suburb | Place | Date | Arrival time | Departure time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canberra City | Fiction Bar | 8 August | 12:00am | 4:45am |
| Woden | Church of Pentecost, 19B Irving St | 8 August | 10:30am | 1pm |
| Fyshwick | Freedom Furniture | 8 August | 2pm | 2:20pm |
| Fyshwick | JB Hifi | 8 August | 2:15pm | 2:35pm |
| Fyshwick | TK Maxx | 8 August | 2:35pm | 2:50pm |
| Braddon | Assembly Pub | 8 August | 9pm | 9:30pm |
| Fyshwick | Stockade Training Centre | 9 August | 7:30am | 1pm |
| Fyshwick | Stockade Training Centre | 10 August | 9am | 11am |
| Manuka | Urban Pantry | 10 August | 10:30am | 1pm |
| Fyshwick | Harvey Norman | 10 August | 11am | 12pm |
| Mitchell | North Canberra Business Centre | 11 August | 11:10am | 11:30am |
| Cook | Companion House | 11 August | 11:30am | 11:45am |
| Kingston | Capital Chemist | 11 August | 12pm | 12:15pm |
| Manuka | Coles | 11 August | 12:15pm | 12:40pm |
