Australia's Victoria state's COVID-19 crisis is escalating and health officials reported nearly a dozen new cases of the virus Monday.
Acting Premier James Merlino warned the situation in Australia's second most populous state may well "get worse before it gets better."
The epicenter of Australia's latest hot spot, Victoria's current cluster of community transmission has risen to at least 54. Brett Sutton, chief health officer, said it was difficult to predict the trajectory of the outbreak, Reuters reported.
"It's been a rapidly moving virus and the transmission in those high-risk settings has been very substantial so we have to take it as a day-by-day prospect," ABC News quoted Merlino as saying.
The number of exposure sites in Victoria increased again overnight and was at more than 270 as of early Monday. The list included several shopping centers and dozens of supermarkets and eateries as well as public transport.
Health officials said the latest variant, first detected in India, might be more infectious than original strains - taking just 24-hours to infect another compared with earlier variants that took about five or six days.
Victoria enforced a strict seven-day lockdown Friday after new coronavirus infections in the state capital Melbourne destroyed its three-month run of zero community infections, reports said.
The figures have raised questions over whether the lockdown would be extended beyond the seven days initially announced.
According to the acting premier, the situation in Victoria was "incredibly serious" and the next few days will be critical.
Meanwhile, Victoria's COVID Commander Jeroen Weimar said Monday the state had reached 100% coverage for quarantine workers and front-line health care workers.
About 85% of the wider health care workforce has received at least one shot.
Weimar said the government administered the first dose of the vaccine to everyone in the public aged-care system by April 19 and about two-thirds of residents and staff in public aged care had received their second dose of the vaccine.
New South Wales state has also vaccinated 100% of its quarantine workforce but doesn't report the number of health care workers who have had the vaccine, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
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