By Jackson Russell
The Kilmore and District Hospital has confirmed a staff member of Kemp’s Bakery in Kilmore has tested positive for COVID-19.
The staff member, who lives in metropolitan Melbourne, worked at the Kilmore bakery between October 1 and October 11 but was not considered infectious during that period.
Investigations have now established the staff member worked while infectious on October 8 and 9 – these were night shifts when the bakery was not open to the public.
Both Kemp’s bakeries in Kilmore and Wandong have closed for deep cleaning and all staff members from both bakeries who worked between those dates were asked to be tested immediately, even if they did not have symptoms, and isolate until they receive a negative test result.
The hospital advised that families and household members of Kemp’s Bakery’s Kilmore staff did not need to get tested but were requested to isolate until the staff member received a negative result.
The families and household members of staff at the Wandong location were not asked to isolate or get tested.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said on Sunday it was being investigated whether the Kemp’s Bakery case was connected to the recent cluster in Kilmore.
“I think we were pretty confident we looked extremely hard for anyone who had contact with that cafe and all those who tested positive in Kilmore,” he said.
“Yes, it’s surprising. Again, we need to keep prompting people to test more broadly if they’re symptomatic at all. We’ll follow up accordingly.”
In response to the new case, the pop-up testing site at Kilmore Soldiers Memorial Hall will be open from 9am-5pm today.
The case comes as Victoria records four new cases and one death the day after Premier Daniel Andrews announced an easing of restrictions.
All four cases are located in metropolitan Melbourne, with three in Hume and one in Moonee Valley.
There are seven active cases in regional Victoria, four in Mitchell Shire and three in Shepparton.
Regional Victoria’s 14-day rolling average sits at 0.5 as Melbourne’s decreased to 7.2.
Since Monday, restrictions took another step towards COVID-19 normal in regional Victoria.
Regional hospitality businesses are now able to increase their capacity to 40 people indoors and up to 70 people outdoors. Businesses must continue to ensure people from metropolitan Melbourne do not eat-in.
Home visits are now two adults and their dependants allowed to visit an individual’s home each day. The two people can be from different households.
Libraries and toy libraries can now open to a maximum of 20 people indoors, religious gatherings will also be able to have 20 people indoors and up to 50 from November 1.
Indoor pools can open to people under 18 with a maximum capacity of 20.
