Victorian COVID response commander Jeroen Weimar says the state’s two new local coronavirus cases linked to the Melbourne Cricket Ground are a “significant cause for concern”.

The two cases, a man and a child, were announced on Thursday afternoon.

They watched the Carlton v Geelong match at the MCG on Saturday and were seated in the same area as two men who attended the game together who subsequently tested positive for the virus. The two groups do not know each other and, while they were in the same area, they were seated separately.

Mr Weimar said on Thursday the two additional cases linked to the MCG “put us in a serious situation”.

“The situation we were dealing with when we stood here 24 hours ago was that all the contact up to that point had been between people who had spent significant time together, who were known to each other,” he said.

One of the initial two cases linked to the MCG, reported yesterday, is a man in his 60s who lives in the Ariele Apartments complex in Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s north-west, which was locked down after two infectious removalists from Sydney worked there.

He attended the game with his friend, a teacher from Bacchus Marsh Grammar, who has since tested positive to COVID-19 along with two members of his family.

Mr Weimar said their interviews were ongoing and “our initial information is that the two new cases we have today are not known to the gentleman from the Ariele, and that of course gives a significant cause for concern.

“They were sitting in very different parts of the ground; there’s no obvious relationship between them at this point in time.

“It may well be that they’re a part of some other group, but we do not believe so at this point in time.”

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