Contact tracing critical to slam door shut on cluster

New coronavirus cases doesn’t mean the sky is falling but it’s game on for contact tracers.

Yes, Victoria has caught coronavirus again – but that doesn’t mean the sky is falling.

With all the state has been through, nobody could blame Victorians if they are looking at the heavens this morning and fearing the worst.

That we are facing new dangers and restrictions that have derailed a state’s well-earned right to celebrate New Year’s.

The fact its happened simply because people innocently shared a Thai restaurant with a person from NSW just adds insult to injury.

Contact tracing and community testing is now critical. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Sarah Matray

Contact tracers have already discovered that three people caught coronavirus after dining at the Black Rock restaurant on December 21, while another three have caught it from them.

So it is now time for Victoria’s contact tracing teams to show how far they have come after a mixed time during the first and second COVID-19 waves.

If the public health team’s response is more like those at the end of Victoria’s second wave – when clusters at Kilmore and in Melbourne’s northern suburbs were stopped in their tracks – rather than the start of the second wave, it should be third time’s a charm.

With so many busy exposure sites and community restrictions eased as the latest cases emerge the Department of Health will have to massively scale up its response from those outbreaks. But, after having its abilities so widely scrutinised, it should be itching for a chance to prove itself.

A COVID-19 testing site in Shepparton where Victoria's last outbreak was contained. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Sarah Matray

They have a new and better prepared team, new technology and systems and – above all – new isolation tactics to stop the spread before it can snowball.

The beginning of Victoria’s second COVID-19 wave saw the virus allowed to slip secretly out of hotel quarantine and given the massive head start of a foothold in vulnerable communities before contact tracers could begin trying to catch up. Ultimately, they never did.

There is still a lot of information needed about the latest cases but, from what we know so far, they appear to be much more similar to those of the Kilmore or Northern Suburbs outbreaks.

On those occasions contact tracers were alerted to the outbreaks much sooner, at a stage where they could hit the ground close to the source.

Using the vastly improved “three ring” tactic the Department of Health then raced to not only isolate cases and their close contacts, but also the contacts of close contacts before coronavirus could truly take hold in the communities.

Its not over to Victorians to do the right thing and get tested. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

If the latest cases are proven to be connected to known NSW outbreaks as thought, then contact tracers are already close to the source.

From the moment positive cases were detected in Mitcham, Mentone and Hallam contact tracers identified, interviewed and isolated 50 primary close contacts.

The third ring is now going up with moves to track more distant contacts and isolate and test thousands of shoppers from Fountain Gate Shopping Centre and Mentone-Parkdale Beach, among others.

Of course, the community must also play its part.

At the start of Victoria’s second coronavirus wave tracers were often hampered by people refusing to answer vital questions.

Compare that to the queues who lined up for testing in Kilmore and Shepparton, and it’s easy to see everyone has a part to play on this occasion.

While all Victorians may have hoped we’d never see another community COVID-19 case within our borders, everyone knew the doughnut days would not last forever.

It seems cruelly ironic this has happened on the last day of 2020 – when everyone is preparing to finally turn their backs on a horror year – but it is probably a perfectly fitting reminder that the danger is not over.

Everyone is used to dealing with an uninvited guest at their New Year’s party and this one should be no different – do everything you can to stay away from it.

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Originally published as Contact tracing critical to slam door shut on cluster