An infectious diseases physician breaks down today’s COVID-19 figure

An infectious diseases physician says although the number of local COVID-19 cases recorded yesterday “looks bad”, he “still presumes we’ll be able to get on top of this”.

Infectious diseases physician at ANU, Professor Peter Collignon, says the “good news” is that 44 of today’s new cases were in isolation for their entire infectious period.

“The numbers are still low, there are quite tight restrictions in Melbourne and good contact tracing … so one still presumes we’ll be able to get on top of this and stop it spreading further,” he told Neil Mitchell.

Professor Collignon says it’s hard to predict if the current outbreak in Melbourne has peaked, but he doesn’t expect cases to decline rapidly.

“With the fact that there’s three mystery cases and a number of people out in the community, I wouldn’t expect, suddenly, tomorrow it’ll be back down to 15 or 16,” he said.

The infectious diseases doctor says cases among Melbourne’s homeless are cause for concern.

“You’re going to have more trouble finding them to do testing and contact tracing,” he said.

“It is a concern because the more socially disadvantaged you are, the harder it is to isolate.”

Press PLAY below for Professor Collignon’s breakdown of today’s COVID-19 cases

https://www.3aw.com.au/covid-19-latest-victoria-records-57-new-local-cases/