CORONAVIRUS cases in the Kingston municipality continue to rise, with at least 55 cases active in the area as of Monday 27 July.
A cluster has broken out at the BUPA Edithvale aged care facility. Mordialloc MP Tim Richardson has confirmed that after one positive test was returned by a worker on 18 July, the number of active cases linked to the nursing home has grown to five.
Victoria recorded its worst ever day of COVID-19 test results on Monday, with 532 new cases recorded. A total of around 3 per cent of tests processed statewide came back positive on Monday.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton told media on Monday that “there’s probably not a country in the world that has gone through a second wave that hasn’t found it particularly challenging. It has very different and complex elements to it that make it quite difficult to manage. The population that gets affected tends to be younger, therefore, tends to be in a working age.
“Often there’s a lot more community transmission in that phase compared to wave one, that’s certainly true for Victoria. So we’re seeing that play out here that our outbreaks, our areas of transmission are occurring in workplaces, mostly essential workplaces, and that it’s spilling over into aged care. The aged care outbreaks are absolutely a consequence of community transmission, but they represent a tragedy for the families involved. For some private aged care facilities, the numbers are disturbing,” he said.
“Where there are outbreaks in aged care, the mortality is extremely high. We know that from European outbreaks in particular where they made up almost half of all deaths. Deaths in aged care made up almost half of deaths in the UK, so these are critical areas to, as I have said before, prevent introduction of the virus in the first place.”
A staff member at Japara Bayview Aged Care in Carrum Downs has also tested positive to coronavirus.
A total of 100 Kingston residents have tested positive to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. In other local government areas there are 30 active cases in Frankston, 30 in Bayside, 99 in Greater Dandenong, and 178 in Casey.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 29 July 2020
