Declaration of Greater Melbourne Area a hotspot for Commonwealth support extended
The Australian Government Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly, declared the Greater Melbourne Area a COVID-19 hotspot for the purposes of Commonwealth support from 11:59pm on 12 February 2021.
Since the initial declaration, four additional locally-acquired cases have been detected in the Greater Melbourne area. Whilst links between cases have been established, transmission has now occurred outside the initial exposure site (Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport) and households.
As such, the declaration has been extended until 11:59pm on 17 February 2021, with further review ahead of that time.
Declaring a hotspot for Commonwealth support triggers the following (if required):
- provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) from the National Medical Stockpile
- actions for aged care facilities including PPE, single site workforce supplement and integration of an aged care response centre into the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre
- assistance with contact tracing
- asymptomatic testing via General Practice Respiratory Clinics.
Read more about listing areas as COVID-19 hotspots.