MILDURA has been declared a COVID-19 hot spot following a sharp increase in the number of active cases and the movement of cases over the past week.
Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd said that posed an exposure risk to the people in the community and Commonwealth support would now be available for the Mildura local government area.
Hot spots enable Commonwealth support to be provided to defined areas where it might be needed.
Factors the Australian Government Chief Medical Officer (CMO) considers when determining whether an area should be declared as a hot spot include the number of cases, rate of increase of cases, links with known outbreaks, source of infection, the geographic spread of cases and the real or potential impact on regional and remote areas.
Declaring a hot spot enables the Commonwealth to provide personal protective equipment, support aged-care facilities, assist contact tracing, offer testing to those with no symptoms through GP-led respiratory clinics, reprioritise vaccine supplies and offer the COVID-19 Disaster Payment to eligible workers.
The CMO may remove a hot spot from the list if case counts decrease for at least 14 days, there are no active cases in vulnerable populations, all cases being detected are among people already identified as contacts who have been in quarantine before becoming infectious and case numbers have not increased as a result of easing restrictions.
Mildura’s hot spot declaration will remain effective until at least 11.59pm on Friday.
Prof Kidd said people in Mildura should continue to follow their local Health Department directions and to book vaccinations.
Recipients of the COVID-19 disaster payment will need to reapply weekly when the state reaches 70 per cent full vaccination of the adult population over 16 years.
When an 80 per cent vaccination rate is reached, the temporary payment will step down over two weeks.
Further information is available at Services Australia.
