By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Victoria’s Covid-19 testing regime has been expanded into the nation’s “broadest” in a bid to further “drive down” community transmissions.
Testing will be open at GP clinics and the 40 coronavirus screening clinics to anyone suffering symptoms such as fever and shortness of breath.
Overnight, one further coronavirus case was reported in Greater Dandenong. The council area has 16 recorded cases.
Across the state, 10 new coronavirus cases were recorded, continuing a plateauing trend in the past week.
The state’s total is 1291 infections, including 1118 recovered. Forty are in hospital, with 15 in intensive-care.
Victoria’s coronavirus death toll remains at 14.
Despite the encouraging stats, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said it was “too early to speculate” on when social-distancing restrictions would wind back.
The decline in new cases was due to “the vast majority of Victorians are doing the right thing”.
The near-200 “active” Covid-19 cases could infect up to 80,000 others if they “walked around the community” for a month.
“We’re not out of the woods yet.”
The wider testing regime would help gauge the “unknown” level of community transmissions, and to work out when to lift restrictions, Ms Mikakos said.
Her aim was for “zero” new cases and community transmissions.
“The only way we’re going to drive down the numbers is if everyone embraces the spirit of the rules.
“Now is not the time for people to look for sporting codes to go back to normal.”
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said restrictions would be lifted only when authorities were confident there was no “uptick” in community transmissions.
“There’s potential to walk back on the most significant restrictions if we drive numbers down.”
Victoria’s state of emergency – including the strict ‘stay at home’ advice – was recently extended to 11 May.
In the 24 hours leading to 14 April, Victoria Police issued 99 fines amidst 507 spot checks at homes, businesses and “non-essential services”.
Some of the breaches of coronavirus social restrictions included four people gathering together at a Baxter shopping strip after visiting friends, 10 people at a backyard party, a 10-person home gathering at Montrose and a four-person barbecue at a Brighton Beach bathing box.
The Government announced it would fast-track the recruitment of 120 extra paramedics in preparation for the Covid-19 peak.
“We will need our paramedics more than ever over the coming months, but we don’t want to have a situation where they have to choose between coronavirus cases and other serious conditions such as heart-attacks and strokes,” Ms Mikakos said.
“We are boosting the paramedic workforce to help cope with this unprecedented challenge, but we all have a role to play in protecting our health system and saving lives. If you can stay at home, you must stay at home.”
She urged Victorians suffering symptoms of cardiac arrest or stroke to not delay seeking emergency treatment.
