Members of the community are being reminded to make sure they’re tested for COVID-19 as Victoria’s State of Emergency is extended for another four weeks.
The extension will allow the State Government to continue enforcing physical distancing and isolation requirements as well as other directions recommended by the Chief Health Officer (CHO) Professor Brett Sutton.
In a statement, Premier Daniel Andrews urged Victorians not to become complacent even after successive days of lower case numbers.
“Since the start of the pandemic, nearly two million tests have been processed, with daily numbers reaching as high as 34,000 on some days,” Mr Andrews said.
“But while it is encouraging that daily case numbers are beginning to stabilise, we have also seen a concerning drop off in testing rates in recent days,” he said.
“The seven days from 11 to 17 August saw 154,432 tests processed, a drop of almost 30,000 or around 17 per cent from the previous seven-day period.”
Mr Andrews said the reduction could be explained by stronger restrictions on movement, and the trend was broadly consistent across the state.
“However there are more extreme examples of testing falling away,” he said.
“Our large scale testing sites have seen between 15 and 40 per cent drops in demand in recent weeks, even though our testing capacity has increased.”
He said while it was good news that people were staying home and following the restrictions, they were allowed to leave home to get tested.
“With flu cases down 75 per cent on the same time last year, it’s far more likely that a sniffle, or scratchy throat, could be coronavirus.”
Mr Andrews said the State had made it easier to access testing in regional areas with dedicated Incident Management Teams (IMT) set up in Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong to offer more testing, as well as food and financial support, to those affected by the virus.
