McDonald’s has reopened a restaurant at the heart of a coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne after the store was closed for cleaning last week.
There are now eight people involved in the cluster as another two join the list.
The fresh cases – confirmed by the health department overnight – are close contacts of the four employees at the Fawkner restaurant who have tested positive.
Another two close contacts have already been confirmed as positive, since the first case was linked to the restaurant on April 30.
The site was closed on Friday and underwent a deep clean at the weekend before being re-opened on Wednesday with staff from surrounding McDonald’s.
McDonald’s Australia chief executive Andrew Gregory said the vast majority of the Fawkner site’s 100 employees have been tested and were negative.
But not all the results have come back yet.
“It’s possible we will get a small number of positive infections,” he told 3AW radio.
The growing cluster comes as the COVID-19 outbreak at Cedar Meats in Melbourne’s west is being investigated by WorkSafe. The probe will examine whether social distancing measures were in place at the abattoir and if workers were provided with appropriate personal protective equipment and hand sanitiser.
The state government and Cedar Meats’ management have defended their handling of the outbreak, including the decision to allow staff to work for several days after workers tested positive.
Victoria’s coronavirus count was 1514 on Wednesday, after seven new cases were confirmed.
Victoria’s coronavirus count was 1514 on Wednesday, after seven new cases were confirmed.
New South Wales has six new cases in the last 24 hours after a day of zero new infections.
According to the Australian Government Department of Health no other states and territories had new cases of COVID-19 yesterday.
Author: AAP/Inside Franchise Business
