NSW showing Vics how it’s done to stop second wave in its tracks

RAPID contact tracing and strict health measures are helping NSW avoid a second wave of coronavirus as the state is praised for doing “a lot better” than Victoria.

Of the 17 new cases in NSW confirmed on Monday, only two were under investigation compared with a staggering 353 of the 532 new COVID-19 positive patients in Victoria being investigated.

Health experts recommend each case is traced to a source within 24 hours, but the total number of people in Victoria not linked to a known cluster has soared to more than 3200.

Two weeks since the first cases connected to the Crossroads Hotel cluster, NSW has not had the surge in cases seen in Victoria after its bungled hotel quarantine outbreak.

NSW Health officials have not only managed to aggressively track down close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases each day, but a significant team remains on hand to assist the overwhelmed officials in Victoria deal with a recordbreaking caseload. The state’s contact tracing team is being expanded from 150 to 380, with up to 80 officials assisting Victoria.

On Sunday NSW conducted thousands more tests than Victoria, which has frequently reported a dip in test numbers for that day even as its outbreak worsened.

NSW has a much lower positive test rate, with 0.07 per cent of the 22,032 tests in the last 24 hours a confirmed case, compared with 3 per cent of Victoria’s 17,588 tests coming back COVID-19 positive.

On the weekend Victoria moved to stop aged-care workers moving between facilities, where there are 681 cases across 61 residential homes. The state mandated masks in aged-care facilities on July 13.