Health bosses gunning for zero daily cases in bid to ease restrictions

Health bosses hope to have the state’s daily case tally back to zero by the weekend, with an aim to lift restrictions in a matter of weeks.

Health bosses are gunning for a zero-case day by the weekend and hope to ease restrictions as early as mid-January if the state can sustain a COVID-free streak.

The next 48 hours will be critical in revealing whether the Black Rock outbreak — which grew to 24 cases on Monday — has been controlled, senior public health officials have told the Herald Sun.

The next key indicator will be how many new cases emerge among Victorians who have returned from NSW in the past four days, sources say.

If both those outcomes are positive, officials are confident the state will achieve no new cases by the weekend.

Under Victoria’s COVID response strategy, a further run of zero-case days would likely trigger a lifting of restrictions on private gatherings and mask wearing, senior officials say.

A supercharged testing push — with at least 10 new sites opened and staff numbers boosted from about 1600 on Sunday to 1750 today and 1900 by the week’s end — will be crucial to the strategy’s success.

Testing at the Parkdale site for COVID on January 3. Picture: David Crosling

As Victorians continued to be turned away from testing sites yesterday, COVID-19 Response Commander Jeroen Weimar pleaded with people not to give up, saying he was optimistic the bolstered resources would drive down wait times.

Centres have been overwhelmed after more than 60,000 Victorians were told to get tested after returning home from NSW as the border snapped shut over the New Year period.

But lengthy delays and sites at capacity meant some were turned away for the third day in a row yesterday.

Testing at the Keysborough drive-through centre was suspended just 15 minutes after it opened at 8am, with those who didn’t make the cut advised to come back later.

At the Prahran Town Hall site, concerned Melburnians waited two hours in heavy rain for a swab, with lines stretching down Chapel St.

At Parkdale, the queue of cars was more than 1.5km long.

Freddie Chavarro, at the top of the queue after arriving at the site at 6.30am, said: “I’m really worried about (there being more cases) but everyone is getting tested so that’s a good sign.”

Stuart Cochran, 40, also turned up at dawn after learning he had attended an exposure site.

“I live in the street right around the corner and I was tempted to just get out of my car and make a coffee at home, then come back. But I’m here for the long haul,” he said.

Traffic at the Dandenong site for COVID on January 3 Picture: David Crosling

Mr Weimar said workers were being called back from their New Year leave to cope with the rush on testing centres.

Almost 22,500 tests were processed on Saturday, compared with more than 40,000 during the state’s disastrous second wave.

“We have seen a significant number of people rightly take some well-deserved leave … so we have had to gear up and mobilise,” he said.

“The choice we faced before Christmas was, do you hold people over and not let them go on leave after absolutely flogging themselves for nine months, do you say, ‘No, you have to stand around the testing stations on the off chance?’ We took a view that we needed to have the right balance of resources.”

A large amount of medical staff are seen at the testing at the Parkdale testing site. Picture: David Crosling

Mr Weimar conceded “the risk is always there” that people would not get tested because of the long queues, but pleaded with Victorians to persevere.

Opposition leader Michael O’Brien described long delays at COVID testing sites as an “absolute shambles.”

“Chaos at testing sites doesn’t keep us safe and it won’t keep us open,” he said.

Genomic sequencing has confirmed the outbreak is directly linked to Greater Sydney, however authorities are still yet to determine who spread the virus at Black Rock’s Smile Buffalo restaurant.

Acting Premier Jacinta Allan was optimistic that Victoria was on top of the outbreak, with the three new cases recorded on Sunday all linked to known infections.

The state has 32 active cases — 21 in the community and 11 in hotel quarantine.

“Victorians should take great comfort from the fact that these are linked cases, strong work has been done by our tracing team, talking to and interviewing the primary and secondary contacts of our cases,” Ms Allan said.

More than 2700 primary and secondary close contacts and return travellers from NSW are being monitored in Victoria.