25 May 2021

UPDATED: New ACT health direction in place following Victorian cluster

| Dominic Giannini
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COVID-19 testing clinic

Anyone who has been to an exposure location in Greater Melbourne needs to immediately get tested and isolate. Photo: Michelle Kroll.

Anyone in the ACT who has been to Greater Melbourne in the last 14 days – or anyone who wants to enter the Territory from Greater Melbourne – must fill out an online declaration form from 6:00 pm tonight (25 May).

Those already in Canberra will have 24 hours to complete the form once it becomes available online this evening at www.covid19.act.gov.au.

Returned travellers from Victoria are also being urged to check COVID-19 hotspots in Greater Melbourne after four cases of community transmission were recorded yesterday (24 May).

Anyone who has attended a close contact exposure site needs to get tested for COVID-19 immediately, contact ACT Health on 5124 6209 and then quarantine for 14 days from the date they were last at the site even if they receive a negative result.

The full list of sites is available at COVID-19 Areas of Concern. As of Tuesday morning (25 May), there were two sites in Epping, one in Maribyrnong and one in Bundoora.

Anyone who has been to a casual exposure location needs to get tested immediately and isolate until they receive a negative result.

“Please continue checking to see if you have been to a newly identified COVID-19 exposure site,” an ACT Health spokesperson said.

Non-ACT residents who have been to a close contact exposure location cannot enter the Territory without an approved exemption prior to arrival under a new public health direction.

Victoria recorded no new cases of COVID-19 today, but a fifth case has been detected and will be included in Wednesday’s figures.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the state should brace for more cases and exposure locations in the coming days as one of the cases was “likely to be quite infectious” as they moved around the community.

New restrictions have been imposed in the state, including the mandatory use of masks indoors and a five-person gathering limit at homes each day.

The restrictions will come into effect from 6:00 pm tonight.

Rachel Stephen-Smith

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith has discouraged Canberrans from travelling to Greater Melbourne at this point. Photo: Michelle Kroll.

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said Canberrans should reconsider travelling to Greater Melbourne at this time due to the uncertainty around the situation.

Ms Stephen-Smith said reconsidering travel was not necessarily due to the risk of transmission but because there is a risk that additional requirements will be imposed on returning travellers depending on how the situation unfolds.

Travellers should be aware that the situation and travel requirements can change quickly, Ms Stephen-Smith said.

ACT Health has warned Canberrans to remain vigilant for COVID-19 and get tested even if they have mild symptoms.

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If only we’d had competent leadership at the Federal level with both the vaccination program and the acceptance of responsibility for quarantine.

The incompetence in Victoria continues!I

How so? What has Victoria done or hasn’t done this time?

The bigger surprise to me is not outbreaks like this but there isn’t more of them in other states.

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