Ewen McRae
Active cases of COVID-19 have plummeted locally in the past week, with Melton recording its lowest number of cases in almost a month.
Melton had 239 active cases on August 23, the lowest number since July 27 when there were 230 active cases.
It is a huge drop off from last week’s highpoint, which saw over 500 active cases of the virus in Melton for the first time.
Moorabool currently has 11 active cases, with 34 in total since the pandemic began.
The drop is consistent with a big decline in case numbers across the state, and chief health officer Brett Sutton said he was determined to continue the downward trend.
“We’re not going to see, you know, 300s and 400s again in Victoria, not under my watch at least,” Professor Sutton said.
“It would be great to see numbers going down even further, but I still do expect that we’re on a trajectory, seven-day moving average that sees it continue to decrease.
“Essentially the transmission that’s still occurring is sometimes because people have forgotten those really basic but very essential elements: not washing your hands that one time, forgetting your mask, not wearing it properly, hugging someone who’s outside your household.
“These are simple but also easy to forget. You know, we [have] got ingrained habits we’re trying to turn around.”
Djerriwarrh Health Services said it conducted 1138 COVID-19 tests in the week to August 21, aand a cumulative total of 21,463 since the beginning of the pandemic.
The health services’ Hospital in the Home program, which was set up to allow patients who would otherwise require hospitalisation to recover at home, is currently supporting 82 patients as they recover from COVID-19.
