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Coronavirus closes Melbourne disability services centre as four new cases identified

Scope Disability Services in Chelsea has been closed for a deep clean after a client was diagnosed with coronavirus.

Scope Disability Services in Chelsea has been closed for a deep clean after a client was diagnosed with coronavirus. Photo: Google Maps

A client of Scope Disability Services and another staff member from a hotel housing returned travellers in Melbourne have tested positive for coronavirus, with four new cases of the illness diagnosed overnight.

All close contacts of the client, including 15 staff and 15 other clients who attend the facility, are being tested and are required to self-isolate.

The day centre in Chelsea, in Melbourne’s south-east, has been closed until at least Thursday for a deep clean as contact tracers try to find the source of the illness.

A staff member at Rydges on Swanston has also tested positive as they were returning to work, bringing the number of cases linked to the hotel outbreak to 14.

The new case in the staff member was detected as part of back-to-work testing. Photo: ABC 

Heath Minister Jenny Mikakos said the staff member had already spent 14 days in quarantine due to the outbreak and was tested for COVID-19 before returning to work.

They will return to quarantine to recover.

The four new cases take the total number of coronavirus infections in Victoria to 1691 with 54 active cases.

Nine people are in hospital, including two in intensive care.

Ms Mikakos said 1616 people had recovered from the illness and there were 179 confirmed cases of community transmission.

Two other cases were diagnosed through routine testing, with 557,000 tests being processed to date.

“We’ve made some great progress in slowing the spread of coronavirus,” chief health officer Brett Sutton said.

But he urged people not to become complacent.

“Practice good hygiene – wash your hands regularly and cough and sneeze into a tissue or your elbow and try to avoid touching your face,” he said.

“Stay 1.5 metres away from anyone you don’t live with and avoid crowds, especially indoors.”

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