Tara Murray
COVID-19 waste water detections in Sunshine West continue to cause concern for health officials.
On Sunday, Victorian Department of Health deputy secretary Kate Matson said there had been repeated daily detections of the virus in waste water in the industrial area from August 8 to August 20, but no cases had been linked to the area.
She called for people who work in the area and hadn’t been tested, to get tested. There are no residential properties in the area.
It came after acting chief health officer Ben Cowie said late last week that the repeated strong water waste detections meant it is more likely than not, a staff member in the area has the virus.
A testing site had been set up in the precinct last week to help get workers tested.
Bus passengers were impacted, with Transdev which is based at the precinct, made changes to it’s bus schedule while staff were tested.
There had also been repeated detections in Ardeer, with the period of concern between August 11 and 16.
New detections in the Albion, Braybrook, St Albans, Sunshine, Sunshine North, Sunshine West and Tottenham areas were also reported last week.
A number of exposure sites in Braybrook were identified by the Department of Health list on Sunday night.
They include several shops at Central West Shopping Centre on August 19 between 3.10pm and 5.10pm and Western Cellars on August 20 between 1.05pm- 2pm.
All are classified as tier two sites, with anyone who visited those stores at those times urged to get tested and isolate until they get a negative result.
The repeated detections come as Victoria recorded 71 new cases on Monday morning. Of those cases, 49 were linked to known outbreaks.
The figure is the highest daily total in this outbreak.
On Monday morning, Emmanuel Medical Centre in St Albans was announced as a tier one site on August 19 between 3.24pm and 4.30pm.
