Page36 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 2 December 2020
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flight. All guests except two small children were tested on day one of their quarantine and all will be tested again between day 10 and day 12, prior to being cleared to exit quarantine. Given the COVID-19 situation internationally, as people continue to return to Australia from overseas in the coming months there will be a high likelihood of further positive cases here from those in quarantine.
We should be proud of our work in suppressing COVID-19 but we must not become complacent. By keeping up the key COVID-safe behaviours we will be best placed to avoid a resurgence of the virus in our community. This starts with good hygiene and staying at home if you feel unwell. If you have cold or flu-like symptoms you should seek medical advice and get tested for COVID-19. Testing numbers remain consistently strong in the ACT, with 120,584 negative test results as of 1 December 2020. High rates of testing are essential to maintain rigorous surveillance and to closely monitor the situation as restrictions are eased. We are reminding the community to get tested if experiencing any of the common COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath.
National surveillance and testing plans are being updated to reflect the evolving situation in Australia, where there is a low prevalence of infection and of increasing fatigue with the pandemic. The ACT’s plans are being updated accordingly. To strengthen our surveillance, the ACT has joined the NSW Health wastewater COVID surveillance program. Currently, a sample of wastewater is collected weekly from the Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Plant, which receives wastewater from over 99 per cent of the ACT population.
ACT Health and Icon Water are working together to investigate a sampling strategy which would increase the number of sampling sites and reduce the catchment areas to approximately 100,000 people. Wastewater samples collected in October and November 2020 did not detect any trace of COVID-19. We will continue to monitor these samples.
Madam Speaker, a public health emergency declaration remains in force in the ACT. The Chief Health Officer provides the government with regular advice on the status of the public health emergency in the ACT and advised me on 17 November 2020 that the declaration should be extended for a further 90 days, due to the ongoing public health risk posed by COVID-19. The public health emergency declaration enables the Chief Health Officer to continue to take the necessary actions to reduce threats to public health, including issuing public health directions that aim to limit the spread of COVID-19 in our community. These directions include the requirement for returned travellers to undertake hotel quarantine and for confirmed cases of COVID-19 to self-isolate.
The ACT’s public health response is guided by the advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and National Cabinet. All Australian jurisdictions are maintaining public health emergency status or similar at this time and are continuing to focus on suppression of COVID-19. While the situation in Victoria has improved significantly, it is likely that we will continue to see COVID-19 outbreaks until there is a vaccine sufficient to deliver widespread immunity. The most recent cluster in
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