Victoria has recorded 177 new cases with 25 connected to contained outbreaks.
There are 151 cases still under investigation.
Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton revealed some figures around how many cases were linked to outbreaks:
• 6 cases linked to LaManna supermarket in Essendon;
• 12 cases at Somerville Meats in Tottenham;
• 8 cases at Cenvic Construction involved in building the Riverina apartments, Footscray;
• 26 cases at Menarock Life aged care facility in Essendon;
• 13 at Glendale Aged Care in Werribee;
• 144 linked to Al-Taqwa College in Truganina; other
• 2 cases at Japara Central Park aged care in Windsor.
Prof Sutton it was not surprising that aged care facilities were involved in outbreaks.
“The vast majority of our aged care outbreaks have involved one, or sometimes two staff, and no residents,” he said.
“That’s a measure of staff identifying themselves as soon as they become unwell and very extensive testing of residents and locked down in those aged care facilities, but they are critically vulnerable and we need to manage them as closely as we possibly can.”
When asked about the cluster at the aged care home, Prof Sutton said: “I’m worried about it.
“It’s a reasonably even split between staff and residents infected at Menarock, but I need to go to the detailed report in the chief health officer media release this afternoon.
“It’s a concern.”
Prof Sutton said there was a “small bit of optimism” in today’s numbers and the number of new cases is much lower than the peak of 288 cases recorded on Friday.
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“I’m not going to be complacent about today’s number. It’s great it’s lower than our peak,” Prof Sutton said. “But it may not be our peak yet. So I would like to see a week of decreasing numbers before I come and say I have greater confident about the direction we’re going in.”
As a reflection of the actions that people took a week or to ago, Prof Sutton said it was probably a good sign.
“This is exactly what we’ll see as people do the right thing and it will continue to drive down if those behaviors are sustained. So that’s a small bit of optimism in today’s numbers,” he said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says stage four restrictions may be imposed on Victorians if people don’t follow the current rules.
“I can’t rule out we have further limits placed on people’s movement. I can’t rule that out,” he said.
“As I always said, if we’re planning for it, we’ll share it with the community. That’s in the hands of hard-working Victorians.
“People in every family right across metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, and indeed, regional communities.”
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