COVID cases on the rise in regional Victoria

REGIONAL Victorian health services are facing their biggest challenge since the start of the pandemic with record new case numbers in many areas, but especially in popular holiday locations.

As the number of new COVID-19 cases across Victoria hit a new record of 5919 cases, a third of them the Omicron variant according to State Health Minister Martin Foley, Bass Coast recorded a further 22 new cases among local residents, and likely many more among visitors listing outside residential locations.

With 21 new cases reported on Thursday and 22 on Friday, Bass Coast local government area is quickly moving up the list of regional locations with the most active cases, including the following:

• Surf Coast 31 new cases, 136 active
• Ballarat 26 new, 113 active
• Mildura 24 new, 126 active
• Bass Coast 22 new, 86 active
• Colac 16 new, 66 active
• South Gippsland 14 new, 55 active
• Baw Baw 11 new, 101 active

Across Gippsland, Bass Coast 22 and South Gippsland 14 recorded the highest number of new cases. All Gippsland LGAs as follows: Bass Coast 22/86, Baw Baw 11/101, East Gippsland 2/16, Latrobe City 11/83, South Gippsland 14/55 and Wellington 3/53.

New testing arrangements

The Victorian COVID-19 Commander, Jeroen Weimar outlined the testing changes and the fact that some outdoor testing centres would be closed today in response to the hot temperatures.

“Obviously, we've made a number of significant changes to the testing arrangements. In any event, you still need a quarantine of seven days from the date of the positive case being identified in your household. If you're neither of those (a positive cases or a household contact), if you've had contact with a positive case through work, through education through social contact, then you must monitor very closely for symptoms. If you have any symptoms at all, you must get a PCR.

“If you don't have any symptoms, but you've had contact with a positive case, you're strongly encouraged to get a rapid antigen test. If that test is positive, you should isolate and go get a PCR test to get a confirmatory result.

“Our contact traces will continue to work closely with all positive cases we identify every single day. They will be sending you messages, giving you directions to ask to you for feedback as to how your symptoms are going, whether you've been to any high-risk settings and whether you need any other further clinical support.

“We will continue to work hard to support those sensitive settings, our hospitals or aged care settings, our vulnerable communities and locations to ensure that any positive cases or outbreaks in those settings get the full attention and support that they need and crucially we’ll be there to ensure the clinical support is there to those who are positive and that you're able to access additional health care should you need to do so.

“And again, I'd like to thank our entire clinical teams across our health services for the phenomenal work they do and of course increasingly the role of primary practice in supporting people who are living with COVID in the community.

“We are as Victorians facing another really challenging wave with Omicron but we are well positioned to do so. We're highly vaccinated. And as the Minister said, we have a strong booster dose program that's ready to roll and already 572,000 Victorians have now had their third dose.

“That's over 11% of those over 12 but it's so important now to book in your booster dose for January or February. If you had your second dose before the end of August or before September, you can now book in and get your booster dose done. Really good to see yesterday particularly in primary care 27,000 Victorians getting a third dose done.

“We expect to see very strong numbers next week at our state clinics, pharmacists and at our GPs.

“Similarly, we've got high testing levels and Victorians know, over the last two years, how to get tested, where to get tested and when to get tested.

“We are now of course moving into our rapid antigen testing environment. We have 34 million rapid antigen tests on confirmed order. They start arriving in the coming days. And in the coming days we'll be making some more announcements around how we allocate those and distribute those through our testing centres.

“Crucially for those who are close contacts, without symptoms who need to get a rapid antigen test, we'll be working with you over the coming days to ensure you can do just that and we’ll ensure that we will work also with our pharmacist and GPs and supermarkets to ensure the rapid antigen tests continue to be available in the general market.

“Finally, the healthcare system is working exceptionally hard. We have 428 people now in hospital with COVID. We have 54 people in ICU with COVID and that care continues around the clock. We expect to see I'm afraid those numbers continue to rise over the days ahead. And there's a huge amount of work happening across our hospitals to make sure we're ready for that workload.

“So please, I urge all of us as we face into these quite challenging numbers. As we worry about the number of cases we see in our community. Please be aware of our own movements and our own exposures, over the days and weeks ahead, including of course in New Year's Eve.

“If you're going out into a social setting, if you're going to be with a lot of other people, or particularly vulnerable people, then please use a rapid antigen test before you do so. If you're going to go out tonight or going to go out in the coming days, stay outside where you can.

“If you're going to be indoors, please use a mask.

“The kind of numbers we're now seeing and the numbers we're seeing in New South Wales show us that this is now very serious. We are now increasingly likely to be proximate to another positive individual. It's so important that we do everything we can to protect and to dampen down this wave that's ahead of us.

“I’d also like I thank everybody, particularly the health care system who's out there working today on another very, very warm day. We're expecting peak temperatures of 38 degrees in Melbourne and in other parts of the state. As a result of course, we are doing a site by site assessment of our testing system where we particularly have outdoor testing facilities. We are closing some of those sights as the temperature in those 10 starts to rise. You'll appreciate of course that our staff have been out there for weeks or months on end. Our staff are out there in full PPE and the temperatures in our outdoor testing tents is increasingly above 10 degrees above the ambient temperature outside.

“Equally we do not want to see people waiting for long hours in cars in exceptionally hot weather. So please, if you need to get a PCR, you only need to get a PCR, if you have symptoms or if you have tested positive on a rapid antigen test.

“Before you go, please check that queuing times, the waiting times on our websites, and follow the directions of our staff on site. If there is no room at that particular site, we will suspend those sites and you should expect to see I'm afraid an increasing number of suspensions during the course of today as the temperature goes up.

“If you can't get tested today, please isolate safely. I know that's frustrating. But then again, if you're getting a PCR test today, you would have to wait 24 hours or so to get a result in any event.

“Please, if you can't get tested today, if you've got symptoms, isolate safely, and we'll get you tested over the days ahead.

“Finally, thank you. We appreciate that everyone's going through a challenging time with this Omicron wave. I would urge everybody to look forward with some confidence, get your booster doses done, identify where you can get your rapid antigen tests to use it productively and we'll work together over the days or weeks ahead to get through this wave as we have with many behind us,” Mr Weimar said.