Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the three people who have tested positive to the virus were already isolating at home during their infectious period.
“But this isn’t over yet - all known contacts of cases or exposure sites need to stay in quarantine for the full 14 days to wrap this up,” Professor Sutton said via Twitter.
Click to reload
The Holiday Inn cluster now stands at 22 cases.
Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd said Victorian authorities were working to make sure all contacts of the three new cases were traced.
“Obviously the Victorian authorities will be acting very swiftly to make sure that all the contacts of these people have been followed up and are also in isolation and arranging to get tested,” he said on the ABC on Friday morning.
No new cases were detected in hotel quarantine overnight.
Victorians experiencing even mild symptoms are being urged to get tested following the detection of viral fragments in wastewater samples from Wantirna South and Boronia in Melbourne’s south on Monday.
Related Article
Viral fragments were also detected in wastewater at Carrum Downs and Langwarrin in the city’s outer south-east and St Kilda East and Caulfield North in the inner east.
Meanwhile, the state government is in talks with the City of Melbourne to reverse the council’s decision to .
Major Events Minister Martin Pakula said he had expressed “disappointment” to lord mayor Sally Capp and said he “got the sense” council would change course.
Council made the call to not go ahead with this year’s festival despite the Chief Health Officer having approved a COVID-safe plan for the yearly event, Mr Pakula said.
He said the proposed plan involved a ticketed system and geographical zones to reduce congestion.
“It would be thousands of people rather than hundreds of thousands,” Mr Pakula said.
“A scaled-back event ... can still be a great event. I hope they’ll reconsider ... I’ve made that clear to the lord mayor.”
It comes after the Department of Health admitted that frontline COVID-19 staff were not paid in the weeks leading up to the latest lockdown.
The department said the pay issue arose after the recruitment of an additional 204 employees to respond to the border permit exemptions and increased call volumes associated with the NSW and Queensland border closures.
Related Article
“When the Department of Health became aware that a number of staff working in the border permit team had not received payment, they acted quickly and arranged for off-line payments to be made to the majority of staff,” a spokesman said.
The department said the issue in no way impacted the state’s response to the pandemic.
Whitten Oval has been touted as a possible location for Melbourne’s first mass coronavirus vaccination hub under a proposal that would see the sporting stadium in the city’s west host thousands of Victorians for immunisation.
Medical groups recently visited the West Footscray oval, home to AFL club the Western Bulldogs, finding it had optimum air flow and was close to health services, making it an ideal location for a vaccination centre.
Mukesh Haikerwal from the Australian Medical Association, who is leading discussions around setting up the hub, estimated the stadium could allow for about 450 people to be vaccinated per hour.
His highly successful coronavirus , also in the western suburbs, is soon being converted into a vaccine clinic with a plan to vaccinate 16 people per hour.
Click to reload
Click to reload
with Rachel Clun, Melissa Cunningham
Start your day informed
Our Morning Edition newsletter is a curated guide to the most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMifmh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLnRoZWFnZS5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvdmljdG9yaWEvdGhyZWUtbmV3LWNvdmlkLTE5LWNhc2VzLWxpbmtlZC10by1ob2xpZGF5LWlubi1jbHVzdGVyLWVtZXJnZS0yMDIxMDIxOS1wNTczd3EuaHRtbNIBfmh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLnRoZWFnZS5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvdmljdG9yaWEvdGhyZWUtbmV3LWNvdmlkLTE5LWNhc2VzLWxpbmtlZC10by1ob2xpZGF5LWlubi1jbHVzdGVyLWVtZXJnZS0yMDIxMDIxOS1wNTczd3EuaHRtbA?oc=5
2021-02-18 21:47:00Z
52781386828193
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Three new COVID-19 cases linked to Holiday Inn cluster emerge - The Age"
Post a Comment