Residents of ten Melbourne suburbs have been told to get tested if they have even minor COVID-19 symptoms after the virus was detected in the city's wastewater.
Victoria's Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday that fragments of coronavirus had been picked up in recent samples from a sewage catchment.
Those in Clayton, Clayton South, Dingley Village, Glen Waverley, Mount Waverley, Mulgrave, Notting Hill, Springvale, Springvale South and Wheelers Hill have been told to be on high alert - especially those who were in those areas between April 4-6.
Health officials are urging anyone in these suburbs with symptoms, no matter how minor, to get tested.
The fragments detected may be a result of a person with COVID-19 being in the early active infectious phase or shedding the virus after this phase, 7 News reports.
The COVID-19 scare comes just two days after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a travel bubble with Australia allowing residents of each country to fly to the other without a mandatory 14-day quarantine period.
The wastewater results appear to have come almost out of nowhere for Victoria, which overcame a major outbreak last year and has now gone 41 days without a community case.
On Thursday, they welcomed the first overseas flights into the city after nearly two months, having suspended its hotel quarantine process when workers contracted the UK strain of COVID-19 from guests at the Holiday Inn in February.
