卫生当局的长官们正在努力，争取在周末之前实现零增长，同时希望如果维州保持清除新冠病毒的趋势，那么最早可以在1月中旬放宽限制。
一位高级卫生官员告诉《先驱太阳报》，接下来的48小时将是揭示Black Rock疫情是否得到控制的关键时刻。截至昨天，Black Rock集群感染的数字已经达到21人。
消息人士指出，下一个关键指标将是过去4天里，从新州返回的维州人里有多少新病例出现。
如果以上两个指标的结果都是正面的，该官员称非常有信心到本周末将不会再有新病例出现。
该高级官员还说，根据维州的新冠应对策略，进一步连续的零新增可能会让当局取消对私人聚会和戴口罩的限制。
另外还有加速新冠病毒检测的努力，当局至少要新开设10个检测点，员工人数从周日的1600人左右增加到今天的1750人，到本周结束时将达到1900人，这对抗击疫情整体战略的成功至关重要。
昨天，许多维州人拒绝回到检测点，新冠检测指挥官Jeroen Weimar恳请人们不要放弃检测，他乐观的表示，增加的人力和资源将会大大减少人们排队等待检测的时间。
由于和新州的边境在新年期间突然关闭，超过6万名维州人从新州撤回后被要求接受检测，各检测点不堪重负。
Keysborough的驾车新冠检测中心早上8店开业15分钟之后就暂停了检测，并通知排队的人们晚些时候再来。
Prahran Town Hall的检测点排队的墨尔本人，要足足等2个多小时才能进行检测，在大雨中队伍一直延伸到Chapel St。
在Parkdale检测点，排队的汽车长龙超过1.5公里。
早上6点半就到了检测点的Freddie Chavarro排在最前面。他表示：“我真的很担心（还有更多病例），但是每个人都在接受检测，这是一个好现象。”
Weimar先生表示，检测点的员工们正在从新年假期中被召回，以应对暴涨的检测需求。
周六进行了22500次检测。
Weimar先生承认“风险一直存在”，因此尽管因为排长队导致人们无法接受检测，但是他仍旧敦促维州人可以克服困难坚持去进行检测，
反对党领导人Michael O’Brien称新冠检测点的长时间延误“简直就是一团糟”。
基因测序工作已确认维州的疫情与大悉尼地区有直接关系，但是当局仍未确定谁是在Black Rocks的Smile Buffalo餐厅传播病毒的零号病人。
代理州长Jacinta Allan乐观的认为，维州已走在病毒前面，周日记录的3起新病例均与已知病例有关。
维州现有32个活跃病例，其中21例在社区中，11例在酒店隔离中。
原文链接：
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/new … 76e99423f7d1928b60c
Health bosses are gunning for a zero-case day by the weekend and hope to ease restrictions as early as mid-January if the state can sustain a COVID-free streak.
The next 48 hours will be critical in revealing whether the Black Rock outbreak — which grew to 21 cases yesterday — has been controlled, senior public health officials have told the Herald Sun.
The next key indicator will be how many new cases emerge among Victorians who have returned from NSW in the past four days, sources say.
If both those outcomes are positive, officials are confident the state will achieve no new cases by the weekend.
Under Victoria’s COVID response strategy, a further run of zero-case days would likely trigger a lifting of restrictions on private gatherings and mask wearing, senior officials say.
A supercharged testing push — with at least 10 new sites opened and staff numbers boosted from about 1600 on Sunday to 1750 today and 1900 by the week’s end — will be crucial to the strategy’s success.
As Victorians continued to be turned away from testing sites yesterday, COVID-19 Response Commander Jeroen Weimar pleaded with people not to give up, saying he was optimistic the bolstered resources would drive down wait times.
Centres have been overwhelmed after more than 60,000 Victorians were told to get tested after returning home from NSW as the border snapped shut over the New Year period.
But lengthy delays and sites at capacity meant some were turned away for the third day in a row yesterday.
Testing at the Keysborough drive-through centre was suspended just 15 minutes after it opened at 8am, with those who didn’t make the cut advised to come back later.
At the Prahran Town Hall site, concerned Melburnians waited two hours in heavy rain for a swab, with lines stretching down Chapel St.
At Parkdale, the queue of cars was more than 1.5km long.
Freddie Chavarro, at the top of the queue after arriving at the site at 6.30am, said: “I’m really worried about (there being more cases) but everyone is getting tested so that’s a good sign.”
Stuart Cochran, 40, also turned up at dawn after learning he had attended an exposure site.
“I live in the street right around the corner and I was tempted to just get out of my car and make a coffee at home, then come back. But I’m here for the long haul,” he said.
Mr Weimar said workers were being called back from their New Year leave to cope with the rush on testing centres.
Almost 22,500 tests were processed on Saturday, compared with more than 40,000 during the state’s disastrous second wave.
“We have seen a significant number of people rightly take some well-deserved leave … so we have had to gear up and mobilise,” he said.
“The choice we faced before Christmas was, do you hold people over and not let them go on leave after absolutely flogging themselves for nine months, do you say, ‘No, you have to stand around the testing stations on the off chance?’ We took a view that we needed to have the right balance of resources.”
Mr Weimar conceded “the risk is always there” that people would not get tested because of the long queues, but pleaded with Victorians to persevere.
Opposition leader Michael O’Brien described long delays at COVID testing sites as an “absolute shambles.”
“Chaos at testing sites doesn’t keep us safe and it won’t keep us open,” he said.
Genomic sequencing has confirmed the outbreak is directly linked to Greater Sydney, however authorities are still yet to determine who spread the virus at Black Rock’s Smile Buffalo restaurant.
Acting Premier Jacinta Allan was optimistic that Victoria was on top of the outbreak, with the three new cases recorded on Sunday all linked to known infections.
The state has 32 active cases — 21 in the community and 11 in hotel quarantine.
“Victorians should take great comfort from the fact that these are linked cases, strong work has been done by our tracing team, talking to and interviewing the primary and secondary contacts of our cases,” Ms Allan said.
More than 2700 primary and secondary close contacts and return travellers from NSW are being monitored in Victoria.
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