Please note: this is an archived news article release

This article was published on Tuesday, 24 August, 2021. The information contained within may be out of date or inaccurate. News articles and media releases older than 60 days are archived for future reference.

COVID-19 Update – Positive Cases, Testing Tuesday, Stop & Stay Clarification

Positive cases

There have been additional cases of people testing positive for COVID-19 late yesterday/overnight in Shepparton. Further information will be provided today.

Priority testing

There is a high demand for COVID-19 testing at present related to the Shepparton outbreak. At this time there is likely to be over 17,000 people requiring testing and this will increase as more exposure sites are added. Daily testing capacity is in the order of 3,500 and additional resources have and are being mobilised.

Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms should urgently be tested and are the priority groups for testing today. This will allow the public health teams to understand more quickly what is occurring in this outbreak.

We are asking for the cooperation of community members to allow priority access to testing sites in Shepparton for people who have symptoms of COVID-19.

People who do not have COVID-19 symptoms and have been to an exposure site should remain in quarantine and present for testing from lunchtime Wednesday.

If you do not have symptoms of COVID-19 and are in a queue for testing at the moment, please leave the queue to allow priority access to testing for people that have symptoms.

We have created social media tiles about today’s priority testing (‘Testing Tuesday’) – see attached below. Please share and encourage as many people to come forward to be tested if they have symptoms.

‘Stop & Stay’ clarification

Stop & Stay means get tested and stay in quarantine. This applies to the primary close contact and household members. At this time, you should expect to stay in quarantine for 14 days.

Please follow the request above to allow priority testing for members of the community.

Tier 1 or Tier 2 classification of exposure sites may change in coming days based on testing results from the exposure sites. For more information about the different exposure site tier levels and what they mean, please see the attached flyer below.

More information

Please check the GV Health Facebook page for: updated information on testing locations and timings; FAQs; and a Community Forum to be held this evening – a flyer is attached to this release. Please share this information too.

Thank you for your support.

Please note: GV Health will not be conducting a media conference today.