Eight new cases in Cedar Meats coronavirus outbreak
As six more Cedar Meats workers test positive for coronavirus, Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton explains why workers are still testing positive when the abattoir closed more than a week ago.
EIGHTY-five people associated with a Melbourne meat processing facility have now tested positive for coronavirus.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced this morning that eight of the 17 new cases across Victoria yesterday were associated with the abattoir outbreak at Cedar Meats in Brooklyn, taking the total number of cases in the cluster to 85.
Of the new cases, six were workers and two were close contacts of workers.
It comes after just one worker tested positive for the virus on Sunday, the lowest rise since the abattoir closed on Friday, May 1.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said it was “unsurprising” workers were still testing positive.
“You can get positive results for two weeks after exposure so it’s not unsurprising there are still some individuals that have obviously been away from that site for over a week but are nonetheless testing positive now,” he said.
“The entire workforce has been in quarantine so the risk to others is really minimal.”
It comes as it is revealed an administrative error at a laboratory meant a worker did not receive his test results for at least 10 days after he was tested.
The office of Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told The Weekly Times yesterday that they were working with the lab to ensure the test result was reported within 24 hours.
There have been 1509 cases of coronavirus across Victoria.
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