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Weimar said he needed several thousand people in the northern suburbs of Melbourne to get a Covid-19 test today.
We saw a fantastic response yesterday with 3,500 people getting tested. I need to see a similar number coming out today that we have got enough depth of understanding about any cases that might be out there. We want to be confident that we understand these chains of transmission and that it doesn’t jeopardise any other activity we want to do in the state.
Victoria’s commander of testing and community engagement, Jeroen Weimar, says almost 2,500 tests were conducted in the northern suburbs of Melbourne yesterday. He said there had been a “strong community response”.
Testing numbers are up 60% on last week, and he urged anyone in the northern suburbs with any symptoms, and anyone connected with the two schools even without symptoms, to get tested.
We are now also really following up the close contacts. We tested, again, four close contacts yesterday who were associated, potentially, with three schools. I am pleased to say this, close contacts of all tested negative twice. And that means we are no longer regarding Dallas Brooks Primary School, Ilium College and Sirius College as part of this outbreak. They are part of no chain of transmission that we have identified between households we are focusing on these three schools, and these three schools are now disassociated... That means many hundreds of families, many hundreds of people now associated with those three schools are now free to continue on as before.
We also tested 250 close contacts, primary and secondary contacts of this cluster yesterday by visiting them at home. A lot of underground activity over the last two days to reach those people at home, to test them and their household members, all those results are coming in overnight. We have some of those results in already and more results are coming in during the course of this morning. So far we have identified one positive contact out of that come out of those close contacts.
We have also identified a link to the Regis MacLeod aged care facility with two staff members there testing positive. They are associated with this cluster in the northern metro area that we have been working on. We tested all staff and residents of that facility yesterday, all 108 and all of those results have come back negative. We will continue to watch that facility very closely of the coming days and we will speak about that later if necessary.
This continues to be a very complex and rapidly developing case. We now have 11 households [and] chains of transmission between those households. There has been significant progress in the last 24hours as we have identified two new households as part of that 11, and some of the linkages that sit between them. We also have five children at East Preston Islamic College were tested positive. They are well and have all been a part of the initial close contact circle. So this has not spread out, the case any further.
We now have 17 [testing] sites across the northern suburbs that are ready to go. They will be open for business and will be ready for you and open today. It’s very important that we establish if there are any remaining positive cases in the community so we can ensure that you are safely isolated and get the treatment you need and protect your family and friends from any further transmission. We are confident that we understand how this work but there is more work to do.
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