A virus alert has been issued for 14 Melbourne suburbs after fragments of COVID-19 were detected in wastewater three days ago.
Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said on Sunday that the samples were of wastewater from March 7 to 11 and that anyone who visited these suburban areas on the scheduled days should be very vigilant for signs and testing. as soon as possible if “even mild” symptoms are present.
“Traces of the virus that cause COVID-19 have recently been detected in wastewater samples taken from sewage districts serving several Melbourne suburban areas,” he said.
“Some of the virus found in wastewater may be caused by a person with COVID-19 being at an early stage of infection or it could be because someone is holding the virus after the early infectious time. ”
The suburban areas are:
- Laverton and North Laverton from March 9 to 11
- Werribee (east of the Werribee River) from March 9 to 11
- Balwyn North, Blackburn North, Box Hill North, Bulleen, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Donvale, Mitcham, Mont Albert North and Nunawading from 9 to 11 March
- Sunbury (northeast region) from March 7 to 11
Wastewater monitoring is now carried out at 142 locations across Victoria including 70 wastewater treatment plants and 72 sites within Melbourne metropolitan sewerage networks.
Meanwhile, Victoria recorded new zero cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.
The zero cases resulted in 11,382 trials.
Two cases are active in the state and COVID patients are not hospitalized.
31,202 doses of vaccine were given in Victoria.