Coronavirus update for Victoria - 17 November 2020

We are continuing to monitor the situation in South Australia closely and our authorised officers are meeting every flight from Adelaide into Melbourne airport as SA Health works to bring this coronavirus outbreak under control.

Depending on their risk profile, passengers are being required to quarantine if they attended the high-risk exposure site at the Lyell McEwin Hospital or get tested and isolate until a negative result is received if they are from or have been to metropolitan Adelaide. All other South Australian travellers are advised to get tested if symptoms develop.

Yesterday, two flights arrived at Tullamarine from Adelaide. A total of 122 passengers were screened, with 81 tested. There were no arrivals who attended a high-risk location.

Authorised officers took names and contact details of those arriving from South Australia, asked where they had been and completed temperature and symptom checks.

No flights are scheduled into Melbourne airport or Mildura airport today from Adelaide. The next flights expected from Adelaide are due to arrive tomorrow.

Anyone who has been in SA in the last 14 days should check the exposure sites listed on the SA Health website and take the appropriate actions. For instance, if they were in the Lyell McEwin Hospital ED at the specified times, they should quarantine and contact DHHS for advice.

And if they have any symptoms, no matter how mild, they should get tested and self-isolate until the result is available.

Currently the SA border is closed to Victorians which is limiting cross-border traffic.

The cross-border corridor extends 70km into Victoria from the border. Victorian cross-border community members who live within 70km of the SA border will be permitted to enter SA for any reason to travel anywhere within the 70km area from the border. SA cross-border residents are permitted to travel to Victoria for any reason anywhere within the 70km cross-border corridor.

There are also exemptions for essential workers, students returning, domestic violence, commercial transport and freight, urgent medical treatment, compassionate grounds, relocation, foreign diplomatic or consular staff and passing through.

“No border restrictions have been imposed at this stage, but we are continuing to monitor the situation in South Australia,” Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Professor Allen Cheng said.

“All cases in the outbreak in South Australia have known links and are currently within metropolitan Adelaide, so the risk to Victoria’s border communities is low.

“People in South Australia who have been at a high-risk location are required to quarantine, and the South Australian border is closed to most travellers from Victoria. We are also putting in place a range of other measures, including screening arrivals at Melbourne Airport, alerting aged care facilities and hospitals and continuing wastewater testing in western Victoria.”

Victoria has recorded no new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 20,345.

There have been no new deaths from COVID-19 reported since yesterday. To date, 819 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.

This is the 18th straight day where Victoria has recorded zero daily new cases or deaths.

The average number of cases diagnosed in the last 14 days (3 Nov – 16 Nov 2020) for metropolitan Melbourne is zero and regional Victoria is zero. The rolling daily average case number is calculated by averaging out the number of new cases over the past 14 days.

The total number of cases from an unknown source in the last 14 days (1 Nov – 14 Nov 2020) is zero for metropolitan Melbourne and zero from regional Victoria. The 14-day period for the source of acquisition data ends 48 hours earlier than the 14-day period used to calculate the new case average due to the time required to fully investigate a case and assign its mode of acquisition.

In Victoria at the current time:

• 3762 cases may indicate community transmission – no change since yesterday
• 3 cases are currently active in Victoria. All active cases are in metropolitan Melbourne
• 2 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, there are no cases in intensive care
• 19,523 people have recovered from the virus
• A total of 3,422,760 test results have been received which is an increase of 17,412 since yesterday

Of the total cases:

• 18,969 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 1197 are from regional Victoria
• Total cases include 9702 men and 10,630 women
• Total number of healthcare workers: 3573, active cases: 0

As public health work is undertaken throughout the day, outbreak totals are likely to change as the public health team identify links between cases and identified outbreaks. Organisation based outbreak totals include contacts as well as employees/residents/staff/students of that location/business.

Information regarding COVID-19 is available at the Department of Health and Human Services website or by calling 1800 675 398. Testing site details are available at the Where to get tested page.

For more information, see Contract tracing on the SA Health Website.

Media enquiries

Department of Health & Human Services Media Unit (03) 9096 8860 or press@dhhs.vic.gov.au

Cases by Local Government Area

Please find the latest COVID-19 notifications by local government areas below
Note:

• Residential location is the residential address provided when the case is notified.
• This is not where they were infected and may not be where the case currently resides.
• Numbers are correct as of 11.59pm last night but are subject to change as cases are followed up and data is analysed. This can include changes to residential addresses following case interviews.
• The last column shows the number of current active cases in an LGA. Active cases are defined as someone who has tested positive, is currently in isolation and being monitored by the Department and who has not yet recovered.