Australia Corona Virus

Victoria records no new local COVID-19 cases as authorities fight potential Southbank townhouse complex outbreak

Source: abcnews

Victoria has recorded no new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, as authorities test and quarantine residents of a Southbank townhouse complex in a bid to prevent a potential outbreak.

Three new overseas-acquired cases were detected in hotel quarantine.

There were 15,067 test results received on Monday, when 9,997 vaccination doses were delivered at state-run sites.

On Monday, health authorities revealed a case reported on Saturday in the City of Melbourne LGA was believed to have become infected by a previous case in a shared space at the Southbank townhouse complex where they lived.

Some shared facilities have been judged to be private exposure sites and nurses visited the complex on Monday to begin testing residents, some of whom have been ordered to quarantine for 14 days.

Meanwhile, a pause on walk-ins has been announced for the Pfizer vaccine at state-run vaccination hubs, after authorities flagged demand was exceeding supply.

The Victorian Government says existing bookings for the first dose will go ahead but its vaccination centres are this week prioritising giving the second Pfizer jab to those who got their first dose three weeks ago.

Yesterday, Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, tweeted that a wait of up to six weeks between first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine was “fine”.

Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said Victoria could not continue to blame the Commonwealth for any problems with the rollout. 

“The federal government has said we’ve got the inventory, we are giving the state their doses so I’m not interested in that tit for tat, I want the Andrews government to fix this mess,” she said.

“Fix the booking system and get people who want to get vaccinated to be able to be vaccinated and importantly have that second dose.”