The town is gridlocked with thousands lining up to be tested after a man in his 30s tested positive on Sunday.A drive-through testing clinic at the Mildura Recreation Reserve took 464 tests in five hours on Sunday after it was set up at short notice.Lines for testing were again stretching for more than a kilometre on Monday.The initial man who tested positive presented to Mildura Base Public Hospital on Saturday night.He attended the Carlton-Geelong AFL match in the MCC reserve on July 10 before returning to Mildura.By Sunday evening there were 11 Mildura exposure sites, nine of those classified as Tier 1, relating to movements between Monday and Wednesday last week.Mildura Central shopping centre was listed as a Tier 2 site.There were also three Tier 1 exposure sites along the Calder Hwy between Melbourne and Mildura from Sunday, July 11.NED-3869-Covid-19-Exposure-Sites-VictoriaSeparately to the published list of exposure sites, the hospital has confirmed it was a Tier 1 location and visitors were being restricted.Hospital chief executive Terry Welch told the ABC there were 45 staff isolating, making a call for more resources.The Department of Health were planning a community forum for Mildura in response to the case.Before Sunday, the Mildura municipality had gone 465 days without recording any new confirmed local cases.Premier Daniel Andrews said he understood the man was a Mildura local and not somebody from Melbourne who travelled to Mildura.“That just confirms for all of us, if we need any, that this thing moves quick, and if it’s a problem anywhere, it’s a problem everywhere,” Mr Andrews said.Mildura Mayor Jason Modica said the new case was “quite a concern”.“We’ve been put back on our heels because we have been isolated geographically (from the virus) over the last 15 months,” Councillor Modica told the Herald Sun.“We didn’t think it was going to come and now that it’s here we have to respond the best way we can.”Mildura Regional Development chief executive Brett Millington said local small business and tourism operators would be experiencing “a significant level of concern and distress”.“We were somewhat hopeful the lockdown would be shorter in regional Victoria and this will now exacerbate it,” Mr Millington said.“People have been frustrated with having to lockdown but this is an example of what can happen relatively quickly.”Mr Millington said Mildura is “fortunate” the lockdown “did happen when it did”. “In order to stay safe and stay open we need to keep doing the right things.”Follow The Mildura News on Facebook to keep up to date with other local storiesmichael.difabrizio@news.com.au
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