Melissa Cunningham10:04, May 25 2021
Victorian contact tracers are working to identify missing links in a growing coronavirus cluster in Melbourne’s northern suburbs as Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton warns that one of the infected people had been moving around the community with a high viral load. Epidemiologists said one or more undetected cases could have spread the virus beyond the northern suburbs, but Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley did not seek to tighten restrictions on Monday or declare a lockdown. The trans-Tasman bubble remains open for now and the New Zealand Ministry of Health is monitoring the situation. The confirmation of the new Covid-19 cases among four family members spread over three households in Melbourne’s outer north on Monday (local time) sent thousands of people into isolation after Highpoint Shopping Centre and a Bundoora swimming school were listed as exposure sites.
Victoria COVID: Likely cases identified in Melbourne s north watoday.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from watoday.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Advertisement
Major vaccination hubs have scaled back or closed over the Easter long weekend amid claims from the Victorian government it is so far ahead in its frontline worker milestones it can leave vials waiting in the fridge.
General practitioners and their staff, meanwhile, are working outside regular business hours to keep up with demand from members of the public who are being turned away from Victorian government-run hubs.
The mass vaccination centre at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building.
Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui
Only 1015 shots were given out in state-run hubs on Good Friday compared to 7512 the day before. A Health Department spokesman said Friday’s small total reflected typical public holiday or weekend rates.
Experts Call for Mandatory Use of Victoria’s QR App to Streamline Contact Tracing March 16, 2021 Updated: March 16, 2021
The Victorian state government is being urged to make its centralised QR tracing app mandatory as pressure mounts for the state to improve its contact tracing system.
The call follows criticism from the Victorian Health Department, who blamed businesses for providing incorrect or incomplete QR code information used for contact tracing during the Holiday Inn Cluster outbreak that resulted in the state’s snap 5-day lockdown.
Currently, Victorian businesses can use either private record-keeping systems or the Service Victoria QR app. In contrast, other states such as NSW and the ACT have made it compulsory for businesses to use its centralised government app.
Cracks emerged in digital contact tracing system days before five-day lockdown
Weâre sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later.
Dismiss
Save
Normal text size
Advertisement
Victoriaâs highly touted new digitised contact-tracing system has been hindered by defects since it went live in January, with flaws so serious that tracers stopped calling close contacts during a crucial period just days before the state went into lockdown last month.
A Health Department source told The Sunday Age contact tracing calls to close contacts had to be paused for hours on February 8 after it was discovered tracers had been given the wrong list and were calling people linked to a cluster at a Thai restaurant in Black Rock in January, rather than those potentially exposed to coronavirus cases in active outbreaks.