UPDATE, Friday, 9.23am:
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The woman who is being transported to Melbourne with her two COVID positive youngest children says close contacts have been isolating.
The woman, who does not want to be named, said her oldest son had been associating with people who were COVID positive.
"Yeah, they've all got it," she said.
"I've been getting bad phone calls. Everyone is blaming me.
"My two oldest kids went with their father three weeks ago and they came back. I've no idea where they went.
"They didn't show any symptoms until last Friday when my youngest son started getting sick."
The New Zealand national said her ex-partner's new girlfriend tested positive to COVID at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and came to Warrnambool to quarantine.
That woman was quarantining in the same household as where the children were staying.
The mother said her children were coming and going from the household.
"No one said anything. The kids were going in and out. They didn't know," she said.
"I just hope everyone will be alright," she said.
Earlier: A New Zealand national and her three COVID positive children, who have been staying in a Warrnambool motel, for 11 weeks will be transported to Melbourne hotel quarantine today.
The children tested positive to coronavirus on Wednesday after rapid return testing, leading to the closure of the Mahogany Motel on Raglan Parade.
Motel operator John Colvey said the woman and her three children were expected to leave Warrnambool about noon with just one bag of luggage each and be transported to Melbourne hotel quarantine.
He said they had been staying in Warrnambool, but trying to get back to New Zealand.
One of the children has been having access visits with the woman's former partner.
Both the households are understood to be COVID positive.
Mr Colvey said he and his wife were waiting to receive their COVID test results after having samples taken on Wednesday.
He said the visitors and all 13 staff members were tested on Wednesday.
"The mother is negative but her two kids that are here are positive and her eldest son," he said.
"Since then we've had to cancel any bookings and I've had to stop anyone coming in and out of the motel.
"It's been very frustrating. I've no idea if these cases are linked to Swintons or the person who returned from Melbourne after getting tested and was isolating."
Mr Colvey said the support from South West Healthcare and the Warrnambool City Council had been outstanding.
"They came and gave us food, they've been great," he said.
On Thursday morning it was revealed that a Swintons IGA supermarket employee had tested positive after working on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
But, it took until 6.50pm Thursday for Swintons to be listed as an exposure site on the Victoria government coronavirus website and for the supermarket to be classed as tier 1 for staff and tier 2 for the public.
SWHC chief executive Craig Fraser was also asked a number of questions at Thursday's 11am media conference about chains of transmission.
He said he had asked the same questions of state and Barwon health authorities and was still waiting for answers.
Despite 12 new cases involving three households being announced yesterday, there have been no additional exposure sites released.
Warrnambool now has 17 COVID cases in four households.
Swintons being named led to thousands of people lining up to be tested at the Friendly Societies' Park pop-up site yesterday and wait times of about five hours.
The Swintons employee worked:
- Monday, September 27, from 3.30 - 9.30pm
- Tuesday, September 28, from 7.30am - 9.30pm
- Wednesday, September 29, from 6.30am - 4pm
If you attended the supermarket at those times you need to test and isolate until you receive a negative result.
Late yesterday afternoon it was announced the testing site had reached capacity.
On Friday an additional site will be operating at Deakin University on the eastern outskirts of Warrnambool and testing will also be conducted at community house in Fleetwood Court, as well as at the Friendlies and the Merri Street clinic.
The South Warrnambool football club/Friendly Societies' Park drive-thru testing site is opened at 7am and will run until 10pm tonight.
The Deakin University, Princes Highway, Warrnambool, testing site will run from 7am until 4pm, the East Warrnambool Community House, at 17 Fleetwood Court, will be open between 10am and 2pm and today and tomorrow the Leura Oval pop-up testing site in Camperdown will run from 10am until 2pm.
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