Victoria has confirmed a further 22 cases of coronavirus, including 19 linked to a cluster of cases at a Melbourne meat processing plant.
Key points:
- Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has defended the decision not to name the meatworks
- He said the outbreak was “not a risk to the general community and it’s not going to get out of control”
- Victoria tested a record 13,000 people for coronavirus yesterday, meaning the state is on track to meet its goal of 100,000 tests by the end of this week
It brings the state’s total number of coronavirus cases to 1,406 and the number of cases in the abattoir cluster to 34.
Aside from the cases linked to the abattoir, two of the new cases were returned overseas travellers who were quarantined in hotels.
One other case is still under investigation.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton defended his decision not to name the meatworks, saying this was “not part of what’s required for us to do our work”.
“If community members need to be told … we’ll do so,” he said.
The Government has previously named health facilities and schools where outbreaks have occurred.
Professor Sutton said that was because schools were places “where a lot of community members might go, where we can’t identify those individuals for the purpose of contract tracing”.
“They are named for that reason,” he said.
Melbourne radio station 3AW has published a statement attributed to Cedar Meats general manager Tony Kairouz in which he identifies his business in Melbourne’s west as the abattoir involved.
“All workers are self-quarantining and we are working closely with the Victorian health authorities,” the statement said.
“All meat processed at our facilities is proc