Up to 30pc of quarantined returned travellers refusing tests, Mill Park McDonald’s shuts after worker diagnosed with coronavirus
Despite fears Victoria is in the midst of second a wave, the state government says the National Cabinet has endorsed its handling of the coronavirus crisis as a “textbook” response that other states should follow.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
This coronavirus article is unlocked and free to read in the interest of community health and safety. Get full digital access to trusted news from the Herald Sun and Leader for just $1 a week for the first 12 weeks.
Victoria has recorded 30 new coronavirus cases overnight, while a McDonald’s restaurant in Mill Park has closed after a worker tested positive.
Seven of the cases are linked to known outbreaks, with a further five cases confirmed in hotel quarantine.
Five cases were identified through routine testing.
A further 13 cases are under investigation.
Three of the new cases are linked to a social gathering in Wollert.
Two of those cases are close contacts of existing cases, while a third is a student from St Monica’s College in Epping, who worked at McDonald’s Mill Park while infectious.
There is no established link between the social gathering at the student, but investigations are ongoing.
The restaurant has closed for a deep clean but was expected to reopen today.
A McDonald’s spokesperson confirmed the restaurant was closed about 7pm on Thursday, with all workers sent home.
“The individual is currently self-isolating at home and all potential workplace close contacts have been instructed not to return to work for 14 days,” the spokesperson said.
“The health and safety of our people and our customers is our priority. We immediately commenced notifying all employees upon receiving notification of the diagnosis from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
“The restaurant has closed for a deep clean by an external contractor, and should reopen later this morning.”
The health department said the “risk of anyone visiting the McDonald’s contracting the virus is very low”.
The Mill Park franchise is the third Melbourne McDonald’s restaurant forced to close due to an infected staff member.
A further 12 McDonald’s restaurants were closed and deep cleaned in May after a delivery driver contracted the virus.
The health department yesterday confirmed that the St Monica’s College cluster is linked to a Wollert family, with the new cases bringing the total of cases in the cluster to eight.
The state’s deputy chief health officer said the St Monica’s College cluster would now be known as the Wollert family cluster.
“The St Monica’s outbreak has now been renamed as the Wollert outbreak because it has been apparent that the major driver of this outbreak has been social occasions with some spillover into the school,” Dr Annaliese Van Dieman said.
After reassuring healthy Victorians they were free to travel across the state during the school holidays, the Andrews Government began distributing 4800 infra-red thermometers to the most popular destinations, including the Alps and the Great Ocean Road.
NATIONAL CABINET ENDORSES VICTORIA’S RESPONSE
The Victorian government says the National Cabinet has endorsed its handling of the coronavirus crisis as a “textbook” response that other states should follow.
“National Cabinet has roundly endorsed Victoria’s outbreak management response as first rate and the textbook case for other states to follow when, inevitably, they face similar situations in the future,” she said.
It comes as the government has finally release details of its revised request for Australian Defence Force assistance.
On Wednesday it was announced up to 1,000 Australian Defence Force personnel would join the coronavirus frontline in Victoria.
But that deal was scrapped yesterday, with the state Government revising its request for assistance.
Victoria has requested 200 medical resources from the ADF to support its testing blitz.
The ADF have reviewed transport arrangements for hotel quarantine and have advised the state government that there is no need for their involvement.
It is understood talks are still underway to negotiate a role for police or PSOs in the operation of hotel quarantine.
“ADF planning and logistics personnel are already working side-by-side with Victorian emergency management staff in the State Control Centre,” the spokesperson said.
“More than a dozen medically qualified ADF personnel are expected to be on the ground at some of the largest community testing sites as soon as tomorrow, with numbers growing over coming days.
“This first deployment of ADF medical personnel will provide much needed support to the nurses, paramedics and other medical personnel operating in the largest of the over 130 sites operating across Victoria.”
Earlier today, the state’s deputy chief health officer Dr Van Dieman said the state had requested medical assistance from the Australian Defence Force.
“We didn’t request an absolute specific number, we requested medical staff and my understanding is that the ADF have identified at least a couple of hundred that will be able to come down,” she said.
ABOUT 30 PER CENT OF RETURNED TRAVELLERS REFUSING TESTING
Returned travellers would face longer stints in quarantine unless they
agree to be tested for coronavirus under a proposal being considered
by the state government.
The Herald Sun has confirmed the government is looking at options to detain people for longer if they refuse to undergo tests.
A similar scheme exists in NSW.
However there are concerns Victoria’s human rights charter could prevent similar moves here.
It follows Dr Annaliese Van Dieman saying there was no requirement for return to travellers in mandatory hotel quarantine to undergo coronavirus tests, though all were offered testing on several occasions.
Amid claims up to one in three of those quarantined were refusing tests, Dr van Diemen confirmed that about 30 per cent were not being tested before being released back into the community.
“Everybody is offered testing on multiple occasions throughout their stay and we have very good uptake of that,” she said.
“We do tests on more occasions than most of the other jurisdictions.
“We are getting about 70 per cent of people uptaking the test.”
Dr van Dieman said she was happy with the current quarantine testing regimen, but the health department would look at whether further powers were required.
CAUTION URGED AHEAD OF SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
Dr Van Dieman encouraged Victorians to abide by restrictions over the school holidays.
“Our advice for school holidays is to be very mindful of the current restrictions in the current situation in Victoria,” she said.
There is a reason we decreased the limit of people into households [and outdoors] to five and 10 respectively.
“So we ask residents of Victoria to really think about whether they need to undertake frequent social events, either between extended family groups or social groups.
“This is the thing that is driving transmission at the moment. So we really need people to go back to that activity that they were undertaking in April with physical distancing, with hand hygiene, staying at home if you’re unwell or you have symptoms, getting tested if you have symptoms.
“And really thinking about whether you really, really need to have so many gatherings and really trying to minimise those gatherings.”
TESTING IN HOT SPOTS NOT COMPULSORY
Dr Van Dieman said it wasn't mandatory for every person living in a coronavirus hot spot to be tested.
“At the moment we don’t require people who have no symptoms to self isolate until they get results but we absolutely require anybody who has symptoms to stay at home both until they get results, not just until they get results, but until they are completely recovered,” she said.
“I believe that not everybody who has been offered testing has taken it up.
“It is disappointing. We would like everybody to get tested in those areas.
“We would like to really emphasise the message that it is important to get tested and important for us to find every case in those areas.
“We understand why people might have reservations but we are trying to make it is absolutely easy for everybody possible to get tested.
“At the moment, there are no restrictions on people from hotspots moving around the state. “There is no restriction on them. We do have to remember we have hotspots.
“The overall baseline proportion of cases in Victoria is still very low.
“The chance that anyone in these hotspots has COVID is low, but our message is not about specific individuals from hot spots, it’s about the behaviour of the population at large, not going out if you are sick, getting tested and maintaining physical distancing and hand hygiene wherever you are.
“We are not at the point where we’re going to mandate that people wear masks in public.”
FAMILY CLUSTERS CONTINUE TO GROW
A total of 19 cases have been linked to the Keilor Downs family outbreak.
One new case has been linked to a family outbreak in Coburg, bringing the total number of cases in the cluster to 15.
Three new cases today and two existing cases have been linked to a North Melbourne family cluster, bringing the total number of cases to 15.
Dr Van Dieman said there were “quite a reasonable number” of active clusters in Victoria.
Dr Van Dieman said the health department was working closely with Coles after two workers at a Laverton distribution centre tested positive.
“One of those cases is very clearly linked to a large outbreak, that second Keilor Downs outbreak, so we do have a very clear source of acquisition for that,” Dr Van Dieman said.
“Nonetheless, all of the close contacts identified are in quarantine.
“A further cohort of staff is in quarantine. [They] are not close contacts but they have worked shifts with these staff members, albeit at very large distances because it is a very large workplace.
“But we are taking no chances and those staff members are literally just going to work and going home.
“And we are testing the entire cohort of workers, because it is a very large group of workers and we really don’t want to take any chances with our essential food suppliers at this point in time.”
NEW CASES IN TWO CHILDCARE CENTRES, MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY
Two new cases have been confirmed in child care centres.
One child from Smartie Pants Early Learning Centre in Diamond Creek and one from Goodstart Early Learning in Box Hill returned positive tests overnight.
Both children attended the centres while infectious, and both centres are undergoing deep cleaning and contact tracing.
A new case has been confirmed in a healthcare worker at Orygen Youth Health facility in Footscray, and is believed to have worked while infectious.
Dr Van Dieman said the person may have been pre-symptomatic.
“That facility is now in lockdown and we are working very closely with Melbourne Health who run the facility,” she said.
“A number of staff have been put into quarantine who have been close contacts and obviously a number of patients are possibly close contacts so they are in quarantine in their rooms and full PPE is being undertaken, and all of the deep cleaning requirements have been done there and testing will be undertaken as required.”
A new case has also been confirmed in a Box Hill childcare centre.
A number of children and staff members are in quarantine, the deputy chief health officer said.
CANCER DRUG COULD HELP CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS
Melbourne researchers are behind a new international trial using an anti-cancer drug in the hope it could save the lives of seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
Researchers from the Hudson Institute of Medical Research in Clayton have been probing whether the prostate cancer drug Veyonda could help reduce inflammation and protect against organ failure in coronavirus cases.
Their findings were picked up by Australian company Noxopharm, which last week announced it would begin trialling the drug in Europe.
Inflammation is one of the key causes of COVID-19 patients becoming so sick. When infected, the lungs are attacked and become inflamed.
The body reacts to this infection by sending proteins called cytokines to fight it off — but it can also cause the body to go into overdrive, resulting in extreme inflammation, which can lead to sepsis and fatally harm vital organs.
Research group head Michael Gantier said by stopping this reaction, the severity of the infection and any potential long-term impacts, could be reduced.
“Basically, if you are given this drug at the right time you can block the toxic inflammation and you will limit the tissue damage,” Dr Gantier said.
“The argument we are running is it is possible it (the drug) will limit amplification of that toxic damage you get when you have the infection.
“Ultimately, that’s better for the patient to recover — and it has better long-term impacts.”
The drug works by blocking what is known as the STING pathway, which has been linked to tissue damage and inflammation.
It’s hoped the drug can prevent that damage in COVID patients and restore balance so the body can recover.
Noxopharm is teaming up with hospitals in Europe to begin trialling Veyonda on COVID patients.
The company has looked to the overseas market due to the high volume of cases, as opposed to testing it in Australia.
Dr Gantier said while there was not direct evidence in COVID-19 patients as yet, the signs were promising.
MORE NEWS
DRASTIC PLAN FOR PROBLEM-PLAGUED QUARANTINE HOTELS
WHAT SPARKED MELBOURNE’S BIG FAMILY CLUSTER