Major aged care outbreaks are likely to blame for Parkville and East Brighton topping lists for active cases in this week's Melbourne postcode coronavirus data.
Roughly half of all Victoria's active cases as of Friday were linked to aged care – 993 from a total of 2060.
The table below shows the postcodes with the highest rate of active cases as of Thursday this week.
Topping the list is postcode 3052, which takes in Parkville and Melbourne University. It has the highest active case rate of any area in Victoria with eight infections per 1000 residents.
With 47 active cases, it is one of a handful of postcodes that currently has a higher infection rate than it did three weeks ago.
While it may not account for every single case in the area, there has been a sizeable aged care cluster that may have taken the postcode to the top of the list.
Mercy Place aged care facility in Parkville has an outbreak that is currently sitting at 92 cases, including 54 residents, 33 staff and five contact cases – according to the Department of Health.
According to correspondence to families, seen by The Age, the facility experienced it's first positive cases in late July and so far 12 residents have died with the virus.
Another aged care cluster is also likely to be behind the postcode with the biggest net increase in active cases this week – 3187, which takes in Brighton East.
There are now 20 active cases in 3187, 10 more than there were seven days ago.
According to the Victorian Health Department, there are currently 59 cases linked to Allity's Princeton View aged care in Brighton East. That includes 26 residents, 30 staff and three contact cases.
A spokeswoman for the facility said four residents had died with COVID-19 at Princeton View.
As of Friday, there were 94 different facilities with active coronavirus outbreaks, according to the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre – the new joint federal and state agency tasked with overseeing the aged care response in Victoria.
But there is a lack of clarity around where the majority of those active aged care cases are geographically.
A daily summary released by the Victorian Health Department lists the total of cases linked to the aged care facilities with the 10 cumulative (historic) highest numbers of cases.
Friday's list:
- 215 cases linked to Epping Gardens Aged Care in Epping (+1 since Thursday)
- 206 cases linked to St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner (+1 since Thursday)
- 213 cases linked to BaptCare Wyndham Lodge Community in Werribee (no change)
- 162 cases linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Ardeer (no change)
- 139 cases linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth (no change)
- 127 cases linked to Twin Parks Aged Care in Reservoir (no change)
- 123 cases linked to Cumberland Manor Aged Care Facility in Sunshine North (no change)
- 117 cases linked to Japara Goonawarra Aged Care Facility in Sunbury (no change)
- 117 cases linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Heidelberg (+1 since Thursday)
- 116 cases linked to Outlook Gardens Aged Care Facility in Dandenong North (+1 since Thursday)
But authorities are reluctant to release data on the other 84 aged care facilities with active cases around the state, citing a lack of resources to do so.
It leaves the locations of almost half of current active coronavirus cases in the state unknown to the public at large, and gives less context to the postcode data being made available.
There have been at least six different new outbreaks in Victorian aged care facilities in the past week: Doutta Galla Aged Services Woornack in Sunshine, Mitchell House aged care facility in Morwell, Arcare Aged Care in Maidstone, Baptcare Brookview in Westmeadows, BlueCross Chelsea Manor in Chelsea and Royal Freemasons Coppin Centre in Melbourne.
The state recorded 81 new cases of coronavirus and 59 deaths on Friday, following a delay in the reporting of aged care fatalities in July and August.
Victoria's death toll has soared to 650, with the spike in fatalities due to the delayed reporting of 50 aged-care related deaths that occurred in the past two months.
Most Viewed in National
Source: Read Full Article