Coronavirus update for Victoria - Saturday 2 October 2021

Victoria was notified of 1,488 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday. All were locally acquired.

There are 11,591 active cases in Victoria - all locally acquired.

There are 429 COVID-19 cases in hospital in Victoria. 97 of those cases are in intensive care, with 54 cases on a ventilator.

Sadly, the Department was notified of two deaths yesterday - a man aged in his 60s from Hume and a man aged in his 60s from the Mornington Peninsula.

This brings the total number of deaths from the current outbreak to 46, and the total number of deaths in Victoria since the pandemic began to 866.

The total number of confirmed cases in Victoria since the beginning of the pandemic is 39,749. Upon review, 11 historic cases were reclassified yesterday. During a bulk data clearance yesterday of 192 cases who have recovered from COVID-19, a data input error was made which incorrectly deleted these cases from today's overall total of confirmed cases. This data is being correctly re-entered today to properly classify these cases and will be reflected in tomorrow's total case number.

81.7 per cent of Victorians aged 16 and over have now had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 51 per cent have had two doses.

Update: City of Greater Shepparton and Shire of Moorabool to enter lockdown

Victoria's Acting Chief Health Officer has declared the City of Greater Shepparton and the Shire of Moorabool are now in a seven-day lockdown, commencing at 11:59 pm last night, Friday 1 October, with restrictions the same as those in the City of Latrobe, Mitchell Shire and metropolitan Melbourne (excluding the curfew).

Under lockdown restrictions, you can only leave home for limited reasons: necessary goods and services, caregiving or compassionate reasons (including medical care and getting a COVID-19 test), authorised work or permitted education, exercise and outdoor social interaction in limited groups, and getting a COVID-19 vaccine locally.

Locals are asked to be on high alert for symptoms and get tested if any develop. We also remind anyone who has been contacted by the Department as a close contact to come forward for testing immediately.

To find your nearest COVID-19 testing site, visit Where to get tested for COVID-19. Operating hours and wait times will vary.

Update: Restrictions on the construction sector

Restrictions on the Victorian construction industry will ease at 11:59 pm on Monday 4 October, with five workers plus a supervisor allowed at small-scale construction sites, and up to 25 per cent of workers allowed at large-scale construction sites.

To be allowed on site, all workers will need to carry an Authorised Worker Permit and have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

All sites will need to have an up-to-date vaccination register available for compliance checks at all times.

Every construction site in Victoria must also have a designated and fully trained COVID Marshal on site to ensure compliance with the Chief Health Officer's directions.

For more information on Victoria's construction sector restrictions, visit COVIDSafe reopening for Victorian construction.

Update: Supermarket and distribution centre contact management

A revised contact management protocol will commence in the supermarket industry from today, Saturday 2 October, following consultation between the Victorian Government and industry representatives in the past few weeks.

The new framework allows for a more targeted, risk-based approach where only higher-risk staff will be furloughed, allowing operations to continue.

It reviews individual staff movements against such things as the nature and length of the interaction, vaccination status, the location of the exposure, ventilation and mask-wearing.

The new framework balances the risk of transmission against the risk of interrupting food supply. The industry will pilot the protocol with a view to implementing the revised policy settings in other critical industries in coming weeks.

Vaccines

The Victorian Government has announced its intention to introduce mandatory vaccination requirements for authorised providers and authorised workers who are not working from home.

On the advice of our public health team, all workers - in Melbourne and regional Victoria - on an Authorised Worker list who cannot work at home must have had their first COVID-19 vaccine dose by 15 October 2021.

The requirement will increase to being fully vaccinated by 26 November, unless they have been issued an exemption by an authorised medical professional.

The October deadline does not apply to workers and workforces with existing vaccination requirements under CHO directions. This includes construction workers, commercial freight workers, healthcare workers, aged-care workers and education staff.

To help ensure these workers can receive their vaccine in time, Victoria is expanding its GP and pharmacy grant program to priority LGAs in regional Victoria. We're also doubling the number of grants available for existing LGAs - providing more of our primary care network with $4,000 and $10,000 grants to boost their hours and staffing capacity, so more Victorians can get vaccinated.

Ten vaccination centres across Melbourne will begin administering the Moderna vaccine next week, with 100,000 doses available to anyone aged 12 to 59 years. From Monday 4 October until Sunday 10 October, the vaccine will be available at the following hubs:

Melton Vaccination Hub (Bunnings)
Sunshine Vaccination Hub
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Royal Exhibition Building
Sandown Racecourse Vaccination Centre
Frankston Community Vaccination Hub (Bayside Centre)
Plenty Ranges Arts and Convention Centre
Dandenong Palm Plaza
Former Ford Factory, Campbellfield
La Trobe University, Bundoora.

While additional capacity will become available at these sites over coming days, Pfizer and AstraZeneca will remain available.

We encourage anyone aged 12 to 59 years who is yet to get their first dose of Pfizer to consider bringing their appointment forward and rebooking for Moderna, which is another very safe and highly effective vaccine.

Following advice from Victoria's public health team and greater certainty from the Commonwealth on projected vaccine supply, the dosage interval for the Pfizer vaccine will be reduced from six weeks to three weeks on 4 October 2021.

Anyone who has received their first dose of Pfizer will be able to bring forward their second dose - if they choose to - from 4 October. The recommended interval between Pfizer doses is from three to six weeks. This is in line with ATAGI advice.

Yesterday, 36,878 vaccine doses were administered by Victoria's state-commissioned services.

The total number of doses administered through state-run services is 3,604,774.

Victorians are encouraged to book their COVID-19 vaccination through their local GP or community pharmacy, community health service or state vaccination centre. To find a provider and make a booking, visit the Australian Government Department of Health website.

Outbreaks

Of the 1,488 cases reported yesterday, the following Local Government Areas in metropolitan Melbourne recorded more than one newly diagnosed case:

21 cases in Banyule
22 cases in Bayside
18 cases in Boroondara
95 cases in Brimbank
16 cases in Cardinia
65 cases in Casey
51 cases in Darebin
13 cases in Frankston
16 cases in Glen Eira
54 cases in Greater Dandenong
20 cases in Hobsons Bay
316 cases in Hume
17 cases in Kingston
20 cases in Knox
7 cases in Manningham
27 cases in Maribyrnong
20 cases in Maroondah
47 cases in Melbourne
89 cases in Melton
24 cases in Monash
45 cases in Moonee Valley
80 cases in Moreland
12 cases in Mornington Peninsula
4 cases in Nillumbik
36 cases in Port Phillip
15 cases in Stonnington
10 cases in Whitehorse
110 cases in Whittlesea
98 cases in Wyndham
20 cases in Yarra
13 cases in Yarra Ranges.

There were also 70 cases notified in regional Victoria yesterday:

4 cases in Bass Coast
1 case in Benalla
1 case in Campaspe
5 cases in Colac Otway
1 case in Corangamite
2 cases in Greater Bendigo
9 cases in Greater Geelong
10 cases in Greater Shepparton
2 cases in Indigo
8 cases in Latrobe
5 cases in Macedon Ranges
13 cases in Mitchell
2 casesin Moorabool
2 cases in Mount Alexander
1 case in Murrindindi
1 case in South Gippsland
1 case in Surf Coast
1 case in Wangaratta
1 case in Warrnambool.

Data on Victorian coronavirus cases is available at Victorian COVID-19 data.

Of the COVID-19 cases in hospital yesterday, 73.5 per cent were unvaccinated, 21.5 per cent were partially vaccinated and five per cent were fully vaccinated.

There are currently more than 31,750 active primary close contacts in isolation in Victoria.

The Department has changed the way it communicates with primary close contacts required to quarantine.

People who have been tested for COVID-19 on or after Day 13 of their quarantine period and who receive a negative result can stop quarantining. They will not be contacted by the Department of Health and can use their negative test result as proof that they have completed their quarantine period.
People who have not been tested for COVID-19 on or after Day 13 should get tested as soon as possible and stay in quarantine until they have received a negative result. If they do not get tested, their quarantine period might be extended.
People who have had new exposure to COVID-19 during their quarantine period, including being in the same household as someone with COVID-19, should stay in quarantine and await further advice.

At midday today, there were 600 published exposure sites in Victoria.

For more information on each exposure site, including dates and times of exposure, please visit Case alerts - public exposure sites.

There may be occasions when the Department is unable to make contact with a business or residential premises before their listing as an exposure site. At all times, we take the decision of when to publish these sites in the interests of public health.

The Department regularly manages exposure sites that it doesn't publish online, particularly if these sites represent lower-risk exposure, or if they have comprehensive record-keeping and contact-tracing measures, or if they identify small, private locations - including smaller apartment or townhouse complexes.

Wastewater testing

COVID-19 viral fragments have been detected in wastewater samples taken from the following regional areas:

Aireys Inlet - repeated unexpected wastewater detections in areas that includes Aireys Inlet and Fairhaven. The period of interest is from 16 September.
Ballarat - repeated unexpected detections in areas that include Lake Gardens, Mitchell Park Wendouree, Alfredton, Cardigan, Lucas and Delacombe from 26 September.
Mildura area - repeated unexpected wastewater detections with the period of interest from 26 September in areas of Mildura without known cases.

The detections could be an undiscovered new case or cases or could be the result of one or more people in these areas who have recovered from COVID-19 but are still shedding the virus.

Anyone who lives in, works in or has visited the areas above is urged to watch for the mildest of COVID-19 symptoms and get tested as soon as possible if symptoms develop.

For more information on wastewater testing, visit Wastewater testing.

Update: Testing for students sitting the GAT

The Department of Health strongly recommends that students living in areas with high COVID-19 case numbers get tested for coronavirus before sitting the GAT on Tuesday, 5 October 2021.

Postcodes of priority are 3021, 3023, 3029, 3030, 3037, 3046, 3047, 3048, 3059, 3060, 3061, 3064, 3073, 3074, 3075, 3076, 3082, 3338, 3750, 3752, 3754 and 3977.

Students living in these areas have been given instructions on accessing priority COVID-19 testing this weekend, with dedicated lanes available at the Melbourne Showgrounds and Coolaroo testing sites.

Testing

In a record day for testing in Victoria, 71,224 COVID-19 tests were processed yesterday.

Getting tested as soon as you have symptoms will help health authorities identify new positive cases and provide proper care for your family.

If you are concerned about losing money from missing work, support is available - including the $450 test isolation payment. For more information, go to Financial and other support for COVID-19.