New COVID exposure sites across Macedon Ranges and Castlemaine led hundreds of people to front up for testing on the weekend.
On late Friday afternoon the Health Department listed seven new local exposure sites including two contacts at Coles Gisborne, Gisborne’s Woks N Dumplings, McDonald’s Gisborne, Romsey Compounding Pharmacy, and Castlemaine Hospital. Most were listed as Tier 2 locations but McDonalds and the hospital also had some Tier 1 contacts.
On Saturday the department listed multiple Tier 2 contact sites in Castlemaine for September 27-29, including Vinnies Castlemaine Vinnies, Maxi IGA Castlemaine, Cookie Crumbs, Kmart Castlemaine, Hot Variety, and Stocks Gifts and Gallery.
Added to the list, on Sunday, were several dates and times for Castlemaine’s Nurture One Ray Street Children’s Centre.
In most cases, the storeowners warned the community via social media ahead of the health department’s listings.
Neighbouring Mitchell Shire remains in lockdown.
Hundreds of local residents fronted up to the pop-up testing clinic conducted by CHIRP Community Health and the Bendigo Health Rapid Response Team at Campbells Creek Community Centre on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Testing was set to return to the CHIRP drive-through site today, October 5, depending on demand.
The CHIRP Community Health team advises community members to keep checking for updates on their website and note the latest testing location before their arrival. To find out the latest location and to register, visit chirp.org.au
Disappointingly there were reports of abuse towards testing staff by some community members over the weekend. However, the response to testing was overwhelming a positive one. In fact, one community member even made a cake for the hard-working team.
A CHIRP Community Health spokesperson thanked community members for coming forward for testing.
“We did 360 swabs on Saturday and 319 on Sunday. Over the course of the four days we have tested around 1000 community members. We thank the community for their incredible response and presenting themselves for testing,” she said.
“We advise community members to keep tabs on updates on local exposure sites at coronavirus.vic.gov.au and to come forward for testing if they have visited an exposure site or have any symptoms,” the CHIRP spokesperson said.
Meanwhile COVID vaccinations continue at hospitals, GP clinics and pharmacies.
At the time of going to press on yesterday, Macedon Ranges had 37 active COVID cases and Mount Alexander Shire had eight.
