Health authorities yet to contact Chadstone shop attended by mystery COVID-19 case

A Chadstone shopping centre store attended by Victoria’s first mystery coronavirus case in more than two months is yet to be contacted by the Health Department 24 hours after it was listed as a potential acquisition site on Wednesday, a store spokesman says.

The Superdry spokesman said contact tracers had not spoken to anyone at the clothing store or the chain's headquarters and that the brand had discovered it was listed by seeing its name on the department's website and in the news on Wednesday morning.

"We are still waiting for the business contact tracing team to get in touch from the DHHS, but we have communicated to all staff who were present on Boxing Day … to go and get tested [and] stay quarantined until they receive a negative test result," he said.

A man in his 30s attended sales at Chadstone on December 26 and the MCG Boxing Day Test match on December 27 and later tested positive to COVID-19.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the mystery case had been genetically linked to the northern beaches outbreak, but his case cannot yet be linked to any other cluster in Melbourne.

Authorities warned that anyone who shopped at Chadstone shops Superdry, Culture Kings, Huffer, JD Sports, Jay Jays, H&M, Uniqlo, Myer, Foot Locker or Dumplings Plus on December 26 between 6am to 2pm, or sat in zone five at the MCG between 12.30pm and 3.30 pm on December 27, should get tested. Zara was added to the list on Thursday.

COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said he couldn't comment on the Superdry situation.

"We will always put the information out as quick as we possibly can. [We] will then follow up with individual sites where it's possible to do so," he said.

Mr Weimar said they were looking for an acquisition source at Chadstone and the MCG and that individual stores didn't have much useful information.

"Our priority is not to deal with the individual stores in Chadstone," he said.

The Superdry spokesman said that Chadstone staff had spoken to workers at other the other listed stores, who said they also hadn't been contacted by the department.

Dumplings Plus Chadstone's retail manager Ken Lee said he was contacted by the department on Wednesday afternoon.

The Superdry spokesman said the store would reopen on Thursday with staff from other stores after a deep clean was completed on Wednesday.

Authorities do not believe the man was contagious when he visited Chadstone and the MCG, but they fear he might have acquired the virus at one of the sites. He was wearing a mask while shopping at Chadstone.

The Age has sought comment from all Chadstone shops listed on the Health Department's website as a potential COVID-19 acquisition site other than Zara.

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