Island exposures linked to MCG

SATURDAY, JULY 17 - 5.15PM

This week’s positive Covid cases were visitors to Phillip Island, including one who had attended the Geelong Carlton game at the MCG.

The visit has resulted in over 20 venues listed as exposure sites, but there’s no plan to shut the bridge just yet.

Despite the growing number of exposure sites here, when questioned at today’s press conference, Jeroen Weimar, Victoria’s Covid Commander said there was no plan to isolate Phillip Island as “the whole state is in lockdown at the moment”.

He said he believed the current settings were appropriate to slow down the rate of transmission.

The press conference also revealed more about the source of the exposure.

“The Phillip Island cases are related to the MCG cases,” the Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley, said.

A Trinity Grammar teacher, who went to the MCG and later tested positive, visited Phillip Island with two friends, and spent a few days here.

Jeroen Weimar said the visitors did pretty much “everything there was to do on Phillip Island, except visit the penguins”.

He said he expected there would “absolutely” be more exposure sites listed in the area.

“It is possible other exposure sites will emerge,” he said at the daily press conference.

By 5pm on Saturday, there were 15 Tier1 sites, and nine Tier2 sites on the state government website, but that list was being constantly updated.

During the press conference, officials urged Phillip Island residents to come forward for testing.

However on the ground, local health services were overwhelmed and were asking only people with symptoms, or those identified as Tier1 close contacts to come forward.

CEO Jan Child called on the community to help the health service prioritise the most urgent testing cases.

"If you have no symptoms and you haven't been at a Tier1 exposure site at the designated times, you don't need to panic," she said.

"Please stay home today, then come in a day or two, when we have processed all the other cases."

Additional testing staff came from across Gippsland today, including Warragul, Foster and Sale, to help increase the number of testing teams on site in Cowes, San Remo and Cowes.

Even so, locals faced long delays, some waiting up to eight hours to be tested.

Containment

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, freshly returned from a recent holiday on Phillip Island, stressed the importance of the quarantine process.

He said anyone identified as a Tier1 close contact should have been notified by the Department of Health and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days (from the date of exposure), even if they received a negative test result.

He said there would be checks made on houses to make sure people were complying with the quarantine requirements.

Meanwhile, the Gippsland Region Public Health Unit (GRPHU) has advised it is currently managing 12 of the exposure sites at San Remo and Phillip Island.

All are listed as Tier1 or Tier2, and GRPHU is responsible for cleaning the sites before they reopen.

Testing capacity

In a statement, GRPHU said testing staff support was coming from Sale, Warragul, Latrobe Regional Health, Yarram and Gippsland Southern Health Service, “to meet demand and ensure testing sites can expand times if necessary”.

Additional teams from Peninsula and Cardinia Health will arrive tomorrow.

A new drive through site, operated by the Koo Wee Rup Health Service will operate at the Bass Recreation Reserve (100 Hade Avenue) from 9am to 4.30pm on Sunday and Monday.

A second testing site in Cowes is expected to be announced shortly.

Currently the three sites - Wonthaggi, San Remo and Cowes - have the capacity to test up to 1000 people per day (in total).