By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Greater Dandenong, like the rest of the state, has recorded a dramatic decline in active Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours.
The council area’s active infections plummeted to 141 – a steep drop of 59 cases.
At the same time, three new cases were recorded for a cumulative total of 397.
The Department of Human Services said Victoria’s overnight drop of nearly 2300 active cases reflected cases cleared over the past five days, with further “rapid” declines predicted.
Aged-care active cases dropped by 229. There are still 1811 active infections linked to aged care.
There are 753 actively infected health care workers – down by 312 in the past day.
The drops reflected high numbers of cases from the past three weeks now starting to recover, the DHHS stated.
“The public health team anticipate that if the current trend of slower growth in new cases continues, then the active case number will continue to decline rapidly.”
In Casey, active cases dropped by 121. Its total stands at 228.
Kingston’s active cases dropped by 25 (to a total of 111), Monash by 22 (60), Frankston by 17 (77), Cardinia by 35 (50) and Knox by 21 (to 37).
Most postcode areas in Greater Dandenong have recorded steady reductions.
The 3175 hotspot, which includes Bangholme, Dandenong, Dunearn, Dandenong North, Dandenong South and Dandenong East, has now 96 active cases. That’s a drop of 40 over the past week.
The postcode includes the Outlook Gardens aged-care home in Dandenong North, which has been linked to a further four cases in the past week.
The cluster has spread to 112 residents, staff and contacts.
Active cases in Endeavour Hills (16), Hallam (11), Sandown/Springvale (four) and Doveton/Eummerring (12) have more than halved in the past week.
There were also declines in Keysborough (now with 17 active cases), Lyndhurst/Lynbrook (seven), Noble Park/Noble Park North (20) and Dingley/Springvale South (five).
Dandenong’s postcode now ranks the ninth-most actively infected in the state, behind Hoppers Crossing/Tarneit/Truganina which has also dropped to 278 cases.
It remains the most active South East postcode, just ahead of the 3977 postcode that covers Cranbourne and surrounds (87 active cases).
In Victoria, the death toll however continues to rise to 385 as of 21 August.
