They returned from a NSW Green Zone on NYE and of course they had to get a test and isolate until a negative result was received. They’ve been trying to get one for the past couple of days but of course the sites they went to all reached capacity and closed.
I’m still monitoring for symptoms as I visited Stockland Shellharbour on a day that two exposure sites were listed by NSW Health. Although, I did not enter or go near those two locations. It has now been a week since I returned back to Victoria on December 28. Currently I still feel fine and haven’t got any symptoms. I’ve basically been isolating this whole time though.
I think many people inadvertently forget or don’t realise that, depending on where the testing facility is, it can take hours upon hours just for swabs to be transported for testing, then further time for the specimens to actually hit testing equipment.
The Grattan Institute’s health program director Stephen Duckett said a target to get zero cases in Victoria by mid-January was “achievable”. But will the state be at zero by this weekend? “Maybe not,” he said.Mr Duckett said long queues at testing centres across Victoria were ultimately because there were just “so many who came forward” to get tested after being in NSW.
“[People] responded to the call and lined up for hours in many cases and the testing capacity was overwhelmed. That’s not a good sign,” he told 3AW Breakfast.
"But, it is a good sign in a sense that people recognised the issue and are prepared to help, are prepared to go, ‘well I might be at risk, I might be infectious, so I’m prepared to be tested.’
"There’s only a handful of cases and we know the places they came from. Admittedly there’s more and more [exposure sites] being found.
“Obviously, if [case numbers] get back into double digits, you’ve got to worry. But it’s also about the mystery cases. Any mystery cases where we don’t know where they came from, then that is something we should worry about.”
