Rolling coverage: Geelong residents urged to get tested for coronavirus

Coronavirus fragments have been detected in wastewater at the Corio treatment plant.

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Health authorities will try to flush out any potential coronavirus cases in Geelong’s northern suburbs after virus fragments were detected in wastewater in Corio.

The discovery prompted a warning on Thursday afternoon for residents in the region to get tested if they have symptoms.

The Department of Health and Human Services said the alert was for anyone who lives in, or has visited, Geelong’s northern suburbs and Lara between Saturday November 21 and Tuesday November 24.

DHHS described the result as unexpected because there had been no recent cases in the area.

The viral fragments could be due to residents or visitors shedding the virus, acting Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said.

He said recent discoveries in Altona, Benalla and Portland had not resulted in any further diagnosed cases.

However, he said it was possible there may be an infectious person in the Corio catchment area.

He said the DHHS would provide updates once more testing results become available.

HOME-BASED QUARANTINE ‘UNLIKELY’

A move to home-based coronavirus quarantine in Victoria appears extremely unlikely, with Premier Daniel Andrews suggesting it would see other states close their borders.

Despite Victoria’s quarantine hotel inquiry suggesting housing return travellers in their own homes, Mr Andrews said there was a national consensus to retain hotels.

“The Prime Minister and other first ministers have made it quite clear that there is not a consensus, there is not a view at a national cabinet level that home quarantine is an appropriate to the risk level that we face at the moment,” Mr Andrews said.

“Having some novel approach in Victoria which will be almost certainly mean that other states we’re not comfortable with the arrangements, and therefore for instance close their borders.

“I think we are going to have a hotel-based system but it will look and be different to what it was last time.”

The Premier said he announcements about what the hotel quarantine reset would look like would soon be made, but confirmed the arrangements would include having specific hotels containing all of the confirmed COVID-19 cases separated from other quarantining return

travellers.

“We are testing, doing some of that practical work to make sure we know and understand all the different risks and to take all the steps are to try to mitigate those,” Mr Andrew’s said.

CALL TO OVERHAUL HOTEL QUARANTINE FOR SA PLAN

Victoria should consider a South Australian-style plan to keep COVID-infected travellers in a dedicated health facility, experts say.

It comes as Victoria went 27 consecutive days without a new coronavirus case or death.

The state will have eliminated coronavirus from the community if no new cases are reported on Friday.

Epidemiologists define elimination of coronavirus as 28 days without new or mystery cases in the community.

South Australia on Wednesday announced a revamp of its hotel quarantine program after an outbreak plunged it back into lockdown last week.

All COVID cases will be transferred from the quarantine hotels to a dedicated facility — possibly an old hospital — where security will be carried out solely by police and protective services officers.

Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid.

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Tony Blakely said the plan “has merit”. “You can certainly have higher levels of service and higher levels of (medical) practice,” he said.

It was also backed by Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid, but he warned it would need to be done properly.

“The AMA obviously supports hotel quarantine that is put in place with proper care and highly trained medical and security staff,” he said.

“(But) moving people who test positive to COVID-19 from a medi-hotel to a secure facility should only be done if they will get appropriate physical and mental health care in that facility.”

Premier Daniel Andrews has been tight-lipped on how Victoria’s new hotel quarantine scheme would work when it restarts from December 7.

Quarantine staff will not be allowed to have a second job, or live with workers from the aged care sector, to minimise the risk of the virus escaping again. A test of the new system will take place this week before further details are released.

Volunteers are understood to have been called in for the test at the hotels chosen to receive international travellers.

The Novotel South Wharf was one of Victoria’s last quarantine locations. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokesman said: “The exercises will simulate what returning overseas travellers will experience during their quarantine period and provide a valuable opportunity for staff to put their training to the test.”

The Premier has cautioned that “no model will ever be zero risk”. “We’ve seen that in recent days in other parts of the country,” he said. “You’ve got to build the strongest model possible, get the risk down to the lowest level and then work as hard as you can to mitigate and manage that.”

Former judge Jennifer Coate has made 69 recommendation for a new scheme in probing the bungled hotel quarantine program that seeded Victoria’s disastrous second wave.

A final hearing for the inquiry is scheduled for Friday to tender key documents, including previously omitted DHHS emails involving chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton.

Additional statements from Mr Andrews and Police Minister Lisa Neville, requested by Ms Coate, will also be released.

It will mean that they, along with former Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, who urged the inquiry to treat the Premier’s testimony with “caution”, will not be recalled.

Victoria marked its first ”triple doughnut” day on Tuesday, of zero new and active cases, and no deaths.

It was the first time since February 29 — 269 days ago — that Victoria did not have a single active case.