The Dromana venue shut on Tuesday after being told of the case by the Department of Health.A statement from the owner James McPherson revealed that the patron had dined in the rum garden between 3-5pm on Saturday, October 23.“At the time they were in good health and feeling well, however they have since tested positive for COVID-19,” Mr McPherson posted on social media.He said the business was following all protocols to test and quarantine staff, contact affected customers and deep clean the entire venue. The bar and run garden will not re-open before Sunday, October 31 and customers with bookings for Saturday, October 30 will be contacted.The cellar door will open for tastings only on Saturday, October 30.Staff and investors not working the previous weekend will on hand to help.Prior to reopening last week Mr McPherson said finding staff to re-open when restrictions eased had been challenging.He said the business was operating with about 30 per cent of its normal staff and even his dad had been roped in to help open after lockdown. SURGE IN COVID CASES IN UNDER 30A Rosebud clinic is being swamped by locals seeking Covid tests despite the region having one of the highest vaccination rates in the state.Dr Sally Shaw said the Rosebud Respiratory Clinic had seen a surge in people being tested over the past week.“It’s everywhere. We’re seeing up to 500 people most days and returning an average of 10 positives a day,” Dr Shaw said.A lot of those being tested were under 30.“Young people are seeing housemates and close friends getting sick and the reality of Covid hits them and they want to get tested.”Most of those returning positive tests were either unvaccinated or have had just one jab, Dr Shaw said.The majority of new cases were permanent peninsula residents, she said.On Monday the LGA recorded 33 new cases taking its total of active cases to 311.The steady growth of cases has continued this month despite the region boasting one of the highest vaccination rates in Victoria.More than 82 per cent of Mornington Peninsula residents were fully vaccinated by Monday and 95 per cent had received the first dose. Victoria is at 74 per cent fully vaccinatedOn Monday, Covid-19 testing head Jeroen Weimar revealed that two-thirds of new cases reported each day in Victoria had not been vaccinated at all.Victorian authorities were now hoping to focus on a group of about half a million people not vaccinated.“Those not vaccinated are the ones who are far more likely to be caught up in our daily case numbers and end up in hospital in intensive care,” Mr Weimar said.VIRUS HITS MORNINGTON PENINSULA SCHOOL Mount Martha Primary School will be closed on Tuesday after a student tested positive to Covid.A letter from the school confirmed that a positive case had attended the school on Thursday, October 21 and Friday, October 22.Principal Martin Page told parents that the school would close as a precaution to identify students or staff who were on site and may have had close contact with the case.“Once that review is complete, we will let you know if your child has been identified as a primary close contact,” Mr Page wrote.There will be no onsite supervision for any students and the out of school hours program was also unable to operate.Close contacts would be alerted by Tuesday, October 26.Children named as close contacts are advised to get tested as soon as possible and limit their movements outside the home.Mr Page said other family members of close contacts did not need to get tested or restrict their movements unless they developed symptoms.Children not identified as close contacts will be able to return to school on Wednesday, October 27.The return to school on Wednesday 27 October applies to students in Prep, Year 3 and Year 4 as per the usual scheduled return to school and those booked into the remote onsite program. Other year levels return on Thursday. (Years 1,2, 5 and 6) plus those booked in to the remote onsite program.PENINSULA BUSINESS WITH MOST COVID CASESA Mornington Peninsula chicken factory has 27 active cases.Inghams Enterprises in Somerville is linked to the second largest cluster for businesses not linked to health or aged care in Victoria.It is the eight biggest outbreak in the state.The number of cases is listed on the Department of Health website but the Grant Road site is not listed as an official exposure site. According to the Department of Health organisation based outbreak totals include contacts as well as employees of the business.Not all active cases may have visited the location named. Some may be secondary contacts, such as family members of a confirmed case who then become infected.Workers have taken to social media to find out more information about the cluster.Some have confirmed that workmates are isolating while others have said that while some shifts have been affected the site has not closed during the outbreak.A spokeswoman for Inghams did not comment on the cluster but said it was unlikely to impact chicken supply.There were 234 active cases on the Mornington Peninsula on Wednesday, two less than the tally reported on Tuesday.Hastings was still home to the largest number of cases after 8 new cases were added to the total on Wednesday taking it to 73. PENINSULA TOWN WITH MOST COVID CASESA busy bottle shop has been named an exposure site in the heart of the Mornington Peninsula’s biggest outbreak.Liquorland Hastings was visited by an infected customer on October 10 between 5.43pm and 5.48pm.Anyone in the shop at the time has been urged to get tested urgently and isolate.A statement on the Coles website confirmed the exposure on Friday and the information was shared on social media.It has not yet been added to the Department of Health’s official exposure site list.The department has previously said it would not list all sites.Hastings has 58 active cases – the highest on the Mornington Peninsula – and another four new cases were added to the tally on Monday.The town also has one of the lowest vaccination rates on the peninsula.Only 40-45 per cent of locals are fully vaccinated compared to the LGA’s overall rate of 68.5 per cent.Exposure sites in McCrae and Sorrento have also been named on social media.Brumbys Bakery, Shop 1, 42-44 Ocean Beach Road Sorrento, put a sign on its shop window over the weekend telling customers that the business was closed due to a Covid close contact.Locals posted photos of the sign on social media.Some were concerned about the dangers of more people shopping at the town’s IGA because the bakery was shut.The business was expected to reopen by Tuesday.Sorrento has two active cases and did not record any new infections over the weekend.It was not named on the official exposure site list.Coles McCrae was also named on social media as an exposure site.According to a customer notice from the supermarket the was visited by an infected person – likely a staff member – on October 3, 2pm-8pm and again on October 5, from 10am-2pm.There are currently three active cases in McCrae. NEW EXPOSURE SITE AT PENINSULA SHOPPING CENTREColes Mornington has self-identified as a Covid hot spot.The supermarket on Mornington-Tyabb Road has revealed it was visited by an infected person on October 5, between 6pm and 1.30am.A written statement from the supermarket advises anyone in the shop at that time to get tested immediately and isolate until they receive a negative result.The supermarket has been deep cleaning and is now safe to visit.The exposure site has not been included on the Department of Health’s official list.There are now 138 active cases on the Mornington Peninsula.On Saturday the LGA recorded its biggest spike since the Delta strain took hold in Victoria with 19 new infections recorded.The outbreak in Hastings, which is the largest locally, grew to 27 active cases with 6 new infections added to the tally on Monday.Another two active cases were recorded in both Mount Eliza and Mornington, postcode 3941 which covers Rye, St Andrews Beach and Tootgarook and postcode 3912 which covers Somerville and Pearcedale Single cases were also recorded in Mount Martha and Capel Sound. STILL NO DETAILS ON EXPOSURE SITESA supermarket just 200m from the Federal Health Minister’s office has been hit by Covid.Somerville Woolworths self-identified as an exposure site on Wednesday after a staff member tested positive.A statement on the company’s website said the worker had been told by the Department of Health that they had returned a positive test and were now isolating. The workers most recent shift at the supermarket was September 30 from 12pm until 3.30pm.“The wellbeing of our customers, team and communities is our highest priority, and in line with public health advice, we are taking all necessary steps to ensure ongoing safety in our stores,” a written statement from Woolworths says.“If you have been shopping in our store at the dates and times listed on the Health Departments website, please follow their advice for isolation or testing requirements.”However the exposure site has yet to be added to the official list.Flinders MP and Federal Health Minister wrote to the Victorian Government on Monday expressing concern over the slow publishing of Covid exposure sites on the Mornington Peninsula.On Thursday he said he was yet to receive a response.“The fact that a local supermarket, less than 200 meters from my office has confirmed a staff member was infected while working on September 30, yet it still does not appear on the Victorian contact tracing site, is deeply concerning,” Mr Hunt said.“Victorians need to know where Tier-1 COVID-19 exposure sites are, so they can take adequate precautions to protect themselves and their community.“I urge all in the community if you have any symptoms, however mild, please get tested. If you do not have symptoms, please get vaccinated.”There were 16 new Covid cases added to the Mornington Peninsula’s tally on Thursday including three in Mornington and Mount Martha, two cases each in Mount Eliza, Hastings, Rosebud and Sorrento and single cases in Tyabb, Crib Point one in postcode 3941 that covers Rye, St Andrews Beach and Tootgarook State Labor MP for Nepean Chris Brayne said the Department of Health had advised there were “no issues regarding any backlog of exposure site listings for the Mornington Peninsula”.COVID CASES SPIKE AS EXPOSURE SITES ‘IGNORED’Frustrated locals are demanding answers as Mornington Peninsula Covid cases rise to 47 without exposure sites being declared.Traders and residents say it is impossible to protect themselves from the virus if they are not warned about hot spots.Flinders MP and Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has vowed to investigate why the State Government was failing to give Mornington Peninsula residents critical information.Mr Hunt said on Monday he would seek clarification on why contact tracing was not being made a priority for the area.“I’ll be writing to them today to ask them to ensure there is full public reporting, so people are given all the details, are able to take all the precautions and are able to protect themselves,” he said.Mr Hunt said the Mornington Peninsula had “upheld its part of the contract” enduring the longest lockdown in the world and achieving some of the highest vaccination rates in the state.“They have done a magnificent job … 88.6 per cent have had their first dose and 62.6 are fully vaccinated.”Contact tracing was also a critical to halting the spread of the virus and locals deserved to know where they were most at risk, he said.The decision to not to classify the Mornington Peninsula as regional for health orders had also inflicted extra pain on locals.“They certainly would have enjoyed greater freedoms and possibly protections had we been part of regional Victoria,” Mr Hunt said. State MP for Nepean Chris Brayne said the health department was focusing on “priority and high risk exposure sites” and would no longer publish every Tier 2 site.“As we slowly open up, exposure sites will only continue to grow and grow and the best defence against this while be by being fully vaccinated,” Mr Brayne said.“Fortunately, most of our senior population on the peninsula have been vaccinated against Covid and now we must work to see the younger cohort on the peninsula get vaccinated too.”However, prominent hotelier Julian Gerner said the community was becoming “increasingly frustrated and disillusioned” by the lack of information.“After long periods of zero and very low numbers, there are now cases being reported without correlating exposure sites,” he said.“Talk about out of sight, out of mind.”Mr Gerner said the Mornington Peninsula should be given the same resources to investigate, interview and accurately record exposure sites as the rest of metropolitan Melbourne.“Our vulnerable population deserve the opportunity to make informed choices as to where they go and whether they want to get tested,” he said.Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor Susan Bissinger said information about exposure sites should never be withheld.“People need to be told if they have been at risk,” Cr Bissinger said.Cr Antonella Celi said locals relied on the information.“The disclosure of the exposure sites by the State Government for the Mornington Peninsula are important because the community relies on this information to keep themselves informed and to stay safe,” she said. On Saturday night the first Mornington Peninsula exposure site was added to the list in about a month.The Bays Aged Care at Hastings was declared a Tier 1 exposure site with anyone who had visited between 12am and 11.59pm on September 25, 26, 27, 28, and 30 and October 1 to get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days.On Monday the Woolworths website revealed a team member at the Mornington outlet had tested positive for the coronavirus. According to the website the staff members’ most recent shift was September 30 from 6:00am to 12:30pm.The company said the team member had received Department of Health advice and was “following isolation requirements”.It directed people to the Department of Health website for further advice.However, the supermarket was yet to be added to the exposure site list.DOCTOR NAMES VIRUS HOT SPOTSA Mornington Peninsula doctor is naming possible exposure sites as contract traces fail to keep pace with growing Covid cases in the region. The list of potential exposure sites include four in Dromana – Aldi, Ritchies IGA Xpress Pizza and Pasta and the 788 bus route between Dromana and Rosebud.The Mornington Woolworths has also been named as a potential exposure site.Dr Sally Shaw, who manages one of only two testing sites on the peninsula, said exhausted contact tracers weren’t keeping pace with local cases.She started tracking the movements of positive cases identified at the Rosebud Respiratory Clinic about two weeks ago.“I ring every positive case to tell them the diagnosis and they were telling me where they had been,” Dr Shaw said.“Yet none of the sites they mentioned were added to the exposure site list.”No Mornington Peninsula sites have been added to the official list since the most recent wave of cases began on August 11.The DHHS has said that it does not list every exposure site identified.Exposure sites named by doctorAn Aldi spokesman said the business had not been notified of any infectious people visiting the Dromana supermarket.“We have not received any information to date alerting us to an exposure at Aldi, Dromana from Victoria’s DHHS,” he said.A Dromana IGA staff member who did not want to be named also said it was business as usual at the popular supermarket.“I’ve heard the rumours but as far as we know it’s not true,” they said.Typically only the DHHS and businesses that have been declared exposure sites release the information.Dr Shaw also feared the true number of cases on the Mornington Peninsula were being masked by out of towners staying in holiday houses.At least eight of the cases recently diagnosed at the Rosebud centre were living locally despite having a different address on their drivers licence.Dr Shaw said it was likely those cases had not been included in the Mornington Peninsula tally.Fears of being caught doing the wrong thing made those people reluctant to be open about where they had been while infected, she said.“I’m not here to point the finger. I just want to help,” she said.“The most important thing is for people to get tested.“It doesn’t matter what their postcode is.”The Rosebud clinic has diagnosed 14 Covid cases in the past two weeks.These included cases in Safety Beach and Tootgarook on Wednesday and a Dromana case on Thursday.According to the DHHS website three new cases were added to the Mornington Peninsula’s tally on Wednesday – Hastings, Rosebud West and postcode 3912 which covers Somerville and Pearcedale.To book a test at the Rosebud Respiratory Clinic phone 0436033507.DHHS and Woolworths have been contacted.lucy.callander@news.com.au
Powered by WPeMatico
