Health Department issues alert after listing wrong Woolworths as exposure site - The Age

Victoria’s Health Department has admitted it named the wrong business as an exposure site during a COVID-19 outbreak earlier this month.

People who visited Woolworths Epping during a one-hour period on May 8 were advised to get tested and isolate after a Victorian man tested positive to coronavirus after returning from hotel quarantine in South Australia.

Workers prepare to deep clean a Woolworths in Epping Plaza that was incorrectly listed as a tier 1 COVID-19 exposure site earlier this month.Credit:Penny Stephens

On Friday night, the Health Department acknowledged its error, identifying the correct site as Woolworths Epping North, three kilometres away.

Details for the exposure site were updated after the detection of traces of COVID-19 in wastewater in the area prompted a review of previously identified close contacts, the department said.

The Wollert man in his 30s tested positive for coronavirus on May 11 after quarantining in SA in late April.

Health authorities said anyone who attended the Woolworths Epping North on Saturday, May 8 between 5.40pm and 6.38pm, should now get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.

Health officials have been in contact with Woolworths to identify and test staff who were working at the time the Wollert man attended the store.

A testing site is being set up at Epping Stadium, on Harvest Home Road, which will be open from 9.30am until 5pm on Saturday.

The error was identified after fragments of the virus which causes COVID-19 were detected in wastewater around Epping, 20 kilometres north of Melbourne’s CBD. Fragments of the virus were also identified in wastewater in Wollert.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said while traces of virus in wastewater are being detected regularly due to more people leaving quarantine and shedding the virus, they had changed the exposure site due to “an abundance of caution”.

“While the detections may be due to someone who has had COVID-19 that is no longer infectious continuing to ‘shed’ the virus, it is also possible that it is due to an active but undiagnosed infectious case,” Professor Sutton said in a press release on Friday night.

“This detection is of note because there are public exposure sites in the area relating to the Wollert case, who has been isolating in a health hotel outside the catchment.”

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2021-05-21 09:15:15Z
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