Victoria has recorded five new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and zero deaths, the state's health department says.
The new cases take the rolling 14-day average for Melbourne to 6.1, down from 6.2 yesterday, with 10 "mystery" cases.
In regional Victoria, the 14-day average remains at 0.4.
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As many as 300 people are self-isolating in suburbs in Melbourne’s north as health authorities try to contain an outbreak of coronavirus linked to a school.
There are 17 active cases connected to the outbreak.
A student at the East Preston Islamic College tested positive for the virus, and the school is closed for the rest of the week.
Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has asked 70 families to self-isolate, and a testing blitz has begun in the suburbs of Roxburgh Park, Preston, Broadmeadows and Heidelberg West.
All 120 residents of a social housing block in Broadmeadows have been told to quarantine, and a mobile testing site has been established.
Jeroen Weimar, the DHHS's commander of testing and community engagement, urged anyone in the area displaying symptoms to get tested.
"We’ve boosted all of our testing stations in the area and we’ve got additional pop-up testing locations particularly in Preston and Broadmeadows," he said.
"We have so few cases now in Victoria that when we do see a positive case as we've seen in the past few weeks we're going to bring all of our resources to bear on it and we're going to do everything we can to make sure it doesn't go any further."
Doctor wants more help for big families with outbreaks
A Melbourne GP wants large families dealing with coronavirus infections to be assigned a DHHS case manager to ensure they can properly manage their isolation periods.
Catherine Orr has treated more than 100 coronavirus cases, and says the advice given to families by the DHHS can be "inconsistent and confusing" because call operators are not familiar with a family's individual circumstances.
"Us as GPs nor families who test positive do not have one person in DHHS who we can ring or email and say 'could I get a quick advice on this person', so the family just has to ring the hotline like everybody else," she said.
Dr Orr says families are often unsure when their child can return to school after isolating, and have been given conflicting advice via the hotline.
"They should be allocated a case manager from DHHS who co-ordinates all their care so they’ve got someone to go to for questions, and they should be linked in with a GP," Dr Orr said.
"GPs are fighting hard to be included in the process and I think the moment someone tests positive, when DHHS ring them, one of the first questions should be 'have you got a regular GP and can I contact them and involve them in your care?'"
Using drones and helicopters to monitor breaches 'a bit much', Opposition says
The State Opposition and Liberty Victoria have voiced concerns about plans by Victoria Police to use its helicopters and drones to monitor potential lockdown breaches over the AFL grand final long weekend.
Police say they will be patrolling parks, gardens and other public spaces as well as using aircraft to respond to reports of illegal gatherings.
Gemma Cafarella from civil liberties body Liberty Victoria said the use of drones to spy on people was a breach of privacy.
"The use of drones is concerning because of course it rapidly increases the police's capacity to monitor people in their everyday lives going about their personal business," she said.
Victoria’s Shadow Police Minister, David Southwick, says the planned police response this weekend was an overreaction.
"I think it is one thing in terms of crowds getting out of hand, but ultimately having drones and helicopters over the top of people’s backyards is getting a bit much," Mr Southwick said.
Under Victoria's coronavirus restrictions, anyone caught taking part in an unauthorised gathering faces a fine of $4,957.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiXWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTEwLTIyL3ZpY3RvcmlhLXJlY29yZHMtNS1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy1jYXNlcy0wLWRlYXRocy8xMjgwMDk4NtIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjgwMDk4Ng?oc=5
2020-10-21 22:07:00Z
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