‘Somewhat encouraging’: All three new Ballarat cases are known household contacts amid ‘really strong’ testing

Ballarat has recorded three new COVID-19 cases amid a testing blitz that saw more than 2,000 residents get swabbed on Thursday.

There are now nine cases in the Ballarat cluster across three households, as the number of exposure sites climbs to more than 35, including three major shopping centres. 

All three new cases are known household primary close contacts.

Victoria’s COVID commander Jeroen Weimar said this was encouraging.

“That is a somewhat encouraging sign, of course, we never like to see positive cases but we don’t have any mystery cases today in Ballarat following a really strong day of testing,” he said.

“Can I just thank everybody who came out and got tested in Ballarat yesterday and again this morning.”

Health authorities have identified 187 primary close contacts linked to the Ballarat cluster, two thirds of which have already returned negative test results.

“I expect the remaining of those results to come through in the next day or so,” Mr Weimar said.

On Thursday, 2,079 people were tested in Ballarat compared to 300 on the same day last week before the lockdown.

Exposure site warning

With the list of exposure sites growing, Mr Weimar said people needed to keep coming forward for testing.

“We continue to expect a busy few days ahead as we work our way through testing anybody who’s got symptoms, and anybody who’s been to those exposure sites, and anyone who’s got concern about their potential exposure,” he said.

Stockland Wendouree, Myer Central and Delacombe Town Centre are some of the latest exposure sites to be listed by Victorian Health Department.

Target, Kmart, Big W, and four supermarkets are also among the locations.

Information on exposure sites can be found on the Department of Health website.

This comes as Ballarat residents will join Melburnians in getting slightly more freedoms from midnight as 70 per cent of Victorians aged over 16 have now received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.

Gatherings of up to five fully-vaccinated people from two households will be allowed outdoors while partially-vaccinated or unvaccinated people can socialise with one other person outside.

The changes also include expanding the 5 kilometre travel limit to 10 kilometres.

In the rest of regional Victoria, gyms, outdoor and indoor pools will reopen with density limits.

Business support, construction restricted

The Victorian Government will continue to provide business support payments throughout September, where restrictions are affecting operations.

Automatic payments of between $5,600 and $40,000 will be made to help pay wages, rent and other expenses.

Eligible licensed venues will also receive automatic payments until the end of the month to help with the effects of ongoing density limits.

But extra restrictions will be placed on the construction industry as the state government tries to stop the virus leaking out of Melbourne into regional Victoria.

Construction workers will be banned from travelling between regional Victoria and Melbourne from 11:59pm tonight.

This comes after an authorised worker unknowingly infected several people in Ballarat, leading to the current outbreak.

Employees in the construction industry will also have to provide proof of a COVID vaccine by Friday week.

Ballarat property developer Stuart Benjamin said the ban could cause significant delays to projects in the state’s west.

“So that’s a significant impact on these projects, to lose 20 per cent of their workforce.

“A lot of them tend to be specialist trades, so they’re trades that you need for a particular task that will stop the job from going forward.

“It could be inspections or it could be actual construction tasks.”

Surgeries to continue

Despite the lockdown entering its second day, Ballarat Health Services acting chief executive Melanie Robertson said she hoped most surgeries would be able to continue.

“At the moment, surgeries are continuing,” she said.

But she said some surgeries might need to be postponed in the future.

Visitors to the hospital will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances.

“Visitors are restricted at the hospital. Once again, we do this to protect our community. It’s not something that we do lightly,” she said.

Some Ballarat Health Services staff have been furloughed while isolating after visiting exposure sites. 

But Ms Robertson said it was unlikely the health service would need outside support like Shepparton did during its outbreak.

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