Jeroen Weimar says Shepparton is a trailblazer for Covid management

Victoria’s Covid boss has revealed how Shepparton’s response to its outbreak changed the way the virus is now managed across the state.

Jeroen Weimar was in Shepparton on Thursday.

Victoria’s Covid commander Jeroen Weimar says Shepparton’s Covid outbreak in August helped shape the state’s fight against the pandemic.

While visiting the Goulburn Valley town on Thursday, Mr Weimar said the efforts of Goulburn Valley Health and its contact tracing team changed the Victorian Government’s response to the pandemic.

At the height of Shepparton’s Covid crisis, more than a third of the town’s population were forced into isolation following outbreaks in schools.

Mr Weimar said the lessons learnt, helped the government respond differently to other outbreaks across regional Victoria.

It led to the government changing its isolation requirements with full vaccinated people only needing to isolate for seven days instead of 14.

“Shepparton has been a trailblazer on a number of aspects of outbreak management,” he said.

“Particularly what we saw here in August of this year with the speed of which the outbreak increased particularly when it went through some of the biggest schools here in Shepparton and the number of people who had to isolate.

“And of the course the impact it had on the health services but other critical services across the town.

“We’ve had to refine our primary close contact system and our secondary close contact system.”

Mr Weimar said the government had since adopted a far tighter definition of those considered primary close contacts.

“That’s made a lot easier because increasingly more people are vaccinated. When you’re vaccinated we can be much more specific about your risk of catching Covid from another positive case,” he said.

“We’re reducing the number of people who have to isolate.”

Mr Weimar also celebrated GV Health’s introduction of Jabba the Bus, a mobile vaccination service which has helped Greater Shepparton’s dosage rates skyrocket in recent weeks.

“Jabba the Bus is a combination of my two favourite things – vaccination and public transport, so I couldn’t think of anything better,” he said.

“In all seriousness, a huge thumbs up to GVH for Jabba the Bus. Anything we can do to make vaccination closer to people, to make it a less intimidating scary thing — all these things make a difference.”

Mr Weimar also didn’t rule out whether restrictions would blanket the town again with Shepparton taking the title of the most locked down regional town throughout the pandemic.

“You never say never,” he said.

“The things we watch every day are the case numbers, both at the statewide level and local level but also the hospitalisation levels.

“It’s all about the capacity of our healthcare system to manage Covid positive cases.

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