Test boss denies Vic cluster family mix-up

A growing outbreak in Melbourne’s north has on Sunday resulted in the delay of easing lockdown restrictions.

Victorian testing boss Jeroen Weimar has vehemently defended the state health department after criticism from a family at the centre of a Melbourne COVID-19 cluster.

A frustrated family member says the Department of Health and Human Services cleared the family to leave isolation, with an email from October 17 backing up the assertion.

Two days later, the family unwittingly sent their Year 5 boy back to East Preston Islamic College while infected with COVID-19.

The boy had been due to undergo a day-11 test on 20 October and should not have been at school, Mr Weimar said.

The family, which has asked not to be named, told that the DHHS did not explicitly warn the boy should stay isolated.

A published email, dated 17 October, also reads: “As discussed, your family has met the Department of Health and Human Service’s (sic) criteria to end isolation”.

Mr Weimar refused to concede his team got it wrong, and said they had been “explicitly clear” with every single household member.

We absolutely accept there may have been a misunderstanding but the information we have provided is accurate and to the point

“I have seen those letters. We send them individually to named individuals,” the DHHS testing commander said.

“There are eight individuals in that particular household and there is a chain of almost daily discussions, telephone calls, meetings with people to explain to them what is going on as part of that wraparound care that we provide.

Both issues reflected that the government is NOT listening. Yes, the Victorian government have tried their best but they need to listen carefully to the voices of the community.

CALD communities who are new to this society need more resources and detailed instructions to help them to be engaged in this war with Covid-19. We have just recovered from a big setback and we cannot afford another mistake.