Coronavirus: Melbourne’s outlying suburbs among the hardest hit

Outer Melbourne suburbs that are home to essential workers dominate the 16 Victorian postcodes with more than 100 active coronavirus cases.

Outer Melbourne suburbs that are home to essential workers dominate the 16 Victorian postcodes with more than 100 active coronavirus cases.

Data released by the state Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday shows the Victorian postcode with the highest number of active cases is 3029, which takes in Truganina, Tarneit and Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne’s outer southwest, and has 463 active cases.

The area is home to several large clusters, including the Al-Taqwa College Islamic school outbreak of 185 cases, and the ­Linfox warehouse outbreak of 59 cases.

The neighbouring postcode, 3030, which takes in Point Cook and Werribee, has the second-highest number of active coronavirus cases in the state, with 331, followed by the western suburbs postcode 3021, taking in Kings Park and St Albans, with 304 cases.

 

The only inner-city postcode with more than 100 active cases is 3031, with 119 cases, which covers Flemington and Kensington, in Melbourne’s inner northwest — home to housing commission towers that were last month subjected to Australia’s harshest lockdown due to dozens of cases.

For the first time in more than two months, the number of people in Victoria who recovered from coronavirus in the 24 hours to Thursday exceeded the number of new cases, seeing the number of active cases fall by 11 to 7877.

There were eight deaths, down from a record 21 on Wednesday, and 278 new cases — the lowest daily number of new cases in 24 days.

The number of Victorian coronavirus cases that contact tracers have been unable to link to a known source has now exceeded 3000 for the first time, reaching 3068 on Thursday — an increase of 107 since Wednesday.

Thursday‘s 278 new cases came after 20,951 tests were processed in the preceding 24 hours, working out to a 1.33 per cent positive test rate.

The highest positive test rate this month was 3.02 per cent from a record 725 new cases and 24,000 tests processed on August 5, while the lowest rate was 0.95 per cent from 394 new cases and 41,416 tests processed on Sunday.

The number of active coronavirus cases in Victorian aged care facilities has exceeded 2000 for the first time, reaching 2018 on Thursday, across 125 facilities, an increase of 89 since Wednesday.

The number of healthcare workers in Victoria with active cases of coronavirus rose by 61 on Thursday, to 1140.