Victoria has entered its third day of a testing blitz that aims to capture 100,000 tests in 10 days across coronavirus hotspot suburbs in Melbourne's north and south-east.
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By Joseph Dunstan
Here's how different states have responded to Victoria's latest outbreaks
For those that closed their borders, the past week or so has thrown up some difficult questions as Victoria recorded 10 consecutive days of double-digit case increases.
By Joseph Dunstan
Meanwhile, in WA...
While a hard border remains, a swag of new freedoms opened up for Western Australians at midnight this morning.
By Joseph Dunstan
We might hear more on hotel quarantine testing today
A few comments on the latest news around hotel quarantine:
I just heard on the news this morning that 30% of return travellers are refusing to be tested. Was I just half asleep? I assumed testing would be mandatory. No test, no getting back into the country.-Abitconfused
Hi there, What percentage of hotel quarantine returned travellers are being tested in Sydney? Totally unaware that it wasn’t a mandatory requirement.-Shocked
Victorian authorities have so far offered two tests to returned travellers, spaced out over the 14-day quarantine period, but that hasn't been mandated.
After Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen revealed the proportion of travellers who had rejected tests in her state on Friday, outgoing Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy suggested tighter rules may be on the way.
"The states have the powers … to say to someone well, we won't let you out of quarantine until you've been tested and had a clear test," he said.
By Joseph Dunstan
Victorians encouraged to enjoy a cautious school holidays
As Victorian schools break for holidays, the state is grappling with the highest case numbers it's seen in more than two months.
Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has penned an open letter to families, warning them "the only thing between us and a second wave is what we do next".
"Current evidence suggests that the rise in case numbers in Victoria is being driven by families having get-togethers and not following advice around physical distancing and hygiene," Professor Sutton wrote.
"Unfortunately, we are still in a pandemic and people's lives are still at risk. As we've seen across the world, this virus has the ability to turn a small number of cases into hundreds in a matter of days."
By Joseph Dunstan
A quick recap on Melbourne's hotspot suburbs
These are the suburbs where health authorities are ramping up testing to try to get on top of Victoria's latest outbreaks:
- Keilor Downs
- Broadmeadows
- Maidstone
- Albanvale
- Sunshine West
- Hallam
- Brunswick West
- Fawkner
- Reservoir
- Pakenham
By Joseph Dunstan
How useful has the COVIDSafe app been in Victoria lately?
Missed reading the blog, thanks for returning. . How successful is the covid app in tracing Vic cases ?-Morning
Great question, Morning. The most recent response I can find to this was on Wednesday, when Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the COVIDSafe app had not helped identify any recent close contacts, but would play a bigger role as restrictions eased.
"There haven't been new contacts identified by the COVID app but there have been over 30 cases where the app's been downloaded," he said.
But I'll keep an ear out at today's presser for a more recent answer to this question.
By Joseph Dunstan
Will Melbourne's coronavirus outbreaks be exported to Sydney?
The NSW-Victorian border has remained open throughout the pandemic, in part due to the difficulties that would pose for its many twin cities along the Murray River such as Albury-Wodonga, and the business ties between Melbourne and Sydney.
But that's caused some anxiety this week as Victoria saw day after day of double-digit case increases.
By Joseph Dunstan
Some work to go on saliva tests
Infectious disease experts at Melbourne's Doherty Institute say they're in discussions with the Victorian Government on how a new saliva test for COVID-19 could be used.
Mr Andrews said saliva testing would be rolled out for the first time in Victoria from Monday and would involve getting a saliva sample into a cup for testing.
But Doherty Institute director, Sharon Lewin has told ABC Radio Melbourne more work is needed before saliva testing can be scaled up.
Professor Lewin says while coronavirus can be detected in saliva, it's not as reliable as nasal and throat tests.
"It's not as good, unfortunately, as a nose test," she says.
"The advantages are it's easier to collect, it's not painful, but you have less virus in your saliva than there is in the nose."
She says the institute's clinical microbiology team headed by Deborah Williamson has collected saliva samples from 600 people and researchers found the saliva tests had missed several cases.
"So it missed a few cases and needs to be validated a bit further before you could use it on a very large scale," Professor Lewin says.
By Joseph Dunstan
What's with the false-positive test results?
We've seen a few test results which appear to have come back positive, then negative for some Australians - most recently, Essendon player Conor McKenna.
So why does it happen?
By Joseph Dunstan
Good morning!
Welcome to the live blog, where I'll be keeping an eye on coronavirus news around the country.
Victoria is entering the third day of a testing blitz across 10 hotspot suburbs, as the state's schools break for holidays.
But WA's hard border will remain for the forseeable future, particularly as Victoria grapples to contain its latest outbreaks.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMicGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA2LTI3L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWF1c3RyYWxpYS1saXZlLW5ld3MtY292aWQtMTktbGF0ZXN0LXZpY3RvcmlhLWhvdHNwb3QvMTIzOTk1OTTSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTIzOTk1OTQ?oc=5
2020-06-26 23:01:51Z
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