Everyone who tests positive to COVID-19 in Melbourne's COVID hotspots will have their capacity to isolate assessed.
The program began as a pilot in Footscray but demand has been so immense that it is has been rolled out across Melbourne’s virus hotspots in the city's northern, western and south-western suburbs, including Wyndham, Brimbank, Hume and Melton.It comes as new powers to detain people considered a high risk of negligently spreading COVID-19 are set to be debated in State Parliament on Thursday.
Jeniffer Duque was one such case. She still wonders what might have happened had she not been rushed to hospital last month. They uncovered troubling barriers in pockets of the community where the virus is spreading, including among ethnic minorities and those with insecure employment, who have struggled to quarantine for the required fortnight due to complex medical needs and other social factors such as the threat of losing their jobs.
Among those already referred to the program was an aged care worker who was unable to pay his bills and feared losing his job if he didn’t go to work. Cohealth chief executive Nicole Bartholomeusz said the findings of the pilot debunked misconceptions that Victorians were deliberately disregarding health directions."The only way we are going to be able to fully transition out of COVID is if we address the social inequities that prevent people from self-isolating," she said. "It’s the missing piece of the puzzle."
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