Health chiefs confident outbreak in Melbourne’s north can be controlled
Health chiefs tasked with containing a new outbreak in Melbourne’s north say they are working to “aggressively suppress” cases and say Victorians shouldn’t worry about a repeat of the events that lead to the state’s deadly second wave.
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Health chiefs say a growing coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne’s north can be controlled because systems have improved since other major clusters spread wildly this year.
And the head of the East Preston Islamic College — where many members of the outbreak are connected — says leaders have “learnt our lesson” of how to stop the spread of the virus as they continue to contact the community and urge them to get tested.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton and head of contact tracing Jeroen Weimar said moves were in place to “aggressively suppress” the new cluster, including the isolation of hundreds of secondary contacts of cases at the East Preston Islamic College.
Community and faith-based leaders and interpreters have also been engaged, a fter the virus jumped into the Croxton Special School.
There are now 15 active cases in the northern metro region cluster, from a total of 28 so far detected.
Mr Weimar said there had been a “phenomenal response” to requests to stay home and get tested, and that systems had improved since a major cluster shut Al-Taqwa College earlier this year.
“The situation has moved on so much in the last three or four months. If you look at the attitude and the approach of the school … (and) the awareness of the children, the staff,” he said.
Earlier in the year, clusters grew quickly in the north and western suburbs, and Prof Sutton said some people might not have been giving complete answers to contact tracing questions due to fears about their visa and work status.
However, the Department of Health said yesterday that it has “not seen a significant number of cases among visa holders or non-Australian citizens”.
Premier Daniel Andrews said if people were asked to stay home while waiting for test results “that’s critically important to do”.
Principal Ekrem Ozyurek said he spoke with the family at the centre of the cluster on Saturday and that they were in “good spirits”, and the community was rallying around one another.
“I’m sure there will be some people saying negative things, but I’m very confident that the majority of the community would be behind us or anyone (battling coronavirus),” he said.
“We’ll just do the best we can to minimise the effect of this virus getting around,” he said.
The school leader, who tested negative to the virus himself on Saturday, said classes would continue online while the campus was shut.
On Saturday morning residents in Melbourne’s north were urged to get tested for COVID-19.
Families with connection to the East Preston Islamic School were told to do so even if they had no symptoms, after another positive case at the school.
It comes as DHHS said a positive case travelled on the Craigieburn train line on October 21 and 22 through Glenroy, North Melbourne and Yarraville stations between 6am and 6.45am.
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