Australia’s Victoria state authorities say they have detected the highly infectious Delta COVID-19 virus variant for the first time in the latest outbreak in Melbourne, stoking concerns of a major spike in cases.
The Delta variant, which has been classified by the World Health Organisation as among the four COVID-19 variants of concern due to evidence that they spread more easily, likely caused the latest devastating outbreak in India.
Victoria state Chief Health, Officer Brett Sutton says the new variant has not been linked to any sequenced COVID-19 infections across Australia from hotel quarantine or elsewhere.
“It is a concern that it is not linked to other cases but we are absolutely as we have done for the Melbourne cluster chasing down all those primary case contacts and looking into where it might have been acquired.”
The Delta variant was detected in two members of a family who travelled to neighbouring New South Wales (NSW) two weeks ago while likely infectious and visited several popular tourist locations in the state’s south.
