17:16
Civic leaders are calling for community calm and increased testing following confirmation of the Colac’s first coronavirus case.
Polwarth MP Richard Riordan and mayor Jason Schram want health authorities to boost testing resources in Colac to protect the community and limit the hit on businesses.
“Most importantly, we need full government support for as many tests and resources at Colac Area Health as we can provide,” Mr Riordan said.
“We need community calm, and for people to realise everybody can’t get tested as once.”
Cr Schram said people needed to continue staying home where possible, and to be patient.
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Where To Buy“It’s disappointing to hear that we have a local case, but we need to be vigilant,” Cr Schram said.
“Hopefully authorities can get mass testing here and declare there has been no community transmission. Our community needs to stick to the rules, which been working so far, and to look after each other.
16:45
A deep clean of Trinity College Colac is expected to start this afternoon and continue over the weekend.
Principal Paul Clohesy addressed staff, parents and the affected student’s classmates this afternoon, reiterating that a family member of a student, and not the student, had tested positive, but that families would be updated if the situation changed.
15:22
Cameron Dart of Meat Inspectors, the worker’s employer, has provided the following statement:
“Our priorities at this stage are to ensure that the affected staff member is looked after and the right steps are taken to support them during this time.
“We are also taking every step to look after the wellbeing of the remaining staff and working closely with the Department of Health to coordinate urgent testing. As per our internal policies, as soon as we were notified of the diagnosis we began communicating with all key stakeholders, including staff members, to facilitate a quick response.
“We are committed to working with the Department of Health and our core focus is to mitigate any further risk.”
14:56
𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚:
Colac has a confirmed case of COVID-19, with a meat inspecting contractor testing positive to the virus.
The worker received the positive result this morning.
The worker last attended work last Thursday and has been in self-isolation since having the coronavirus test on Monday.
The worker has a child who attends Trinity College Colac. The student has had a COVID-19 test and the school will undergo deep cleaning tonight.
More details to come. We will provide updates across the weekend on our website and social media pages.