SYDNEY, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Australian state of Victoria raised its deep concern as new local COVID-19 cases were linked to the aged care facility.
As of 12:00 p.m. local time Monday, the state officially recorded five new locally-acquired COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. A further six local cases came through later on the day and will be recorded in Tuesday's official figures.
Victorian Acting Premier James Merlino warned the outbreak "may well get worse before it gets better."
"The challenge ahead of us is a very significant one," he told the press on Monday.
"In the past 24 hours we've identified many more points of concern," Merlino said.
"In addition to the very worrying cases in our private aged care, we're also very concerned about the number of other high-risk exposure sites, and we're seeing a small number of cases infecting a large number of contacts."
According to Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley, three of the new local cases were linked to private residential aged care facilities, including a staff member, a family member of an employee and a female resident in her 90s.
"The fact this outbreak has crept into a number of private residential aged care facilities is obviously a very great concern to the Victorian government. It's a very great concern to all Victorians and the Commonwealth government," Foley said.
The states' public health teams are urgently investigating and interviewing the new positive cases and contract tracing is underway.
Currently the health authorities are managing over 4,200 primary close contacts across the exposure sites.
"There's no doubt that this situation is incredible serious," Merlino said.
He said the next few days were critical and urged people to keep following the rules.
In the last 24 hours, 43,874 test results were received in Victoria. Enditem
