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Victoria’s anti-COVID efforts chalk up another doughnut day

How sweet it is: Victoria is once again back on track in its crusade to bring COVID to heel.

How sweet it is: Victoria is once again back on track in its crusade to bring COVID to heel. Photo: Twitter

Victoria has recorded zero new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 as authorities gear up for the beginning of the state’s vaccine rollout.

There were no local or overseas-acquired cases of COVID-19 diagnosed on Saturday in Victoria, with more than 10,300 tests conducted, it was reported on Sunday.

Twenty-five active cases remain in the state.

It was the second consecutive day without a local virus case in Victoria after three people in the same family were recorded COVID-positive on Thursday.

Ahead of Monday’s vaccination rollout in Victoria and across Australia, 20 protesters were arrested in Melbourne on Saturday after rallying in opposition to mandatory inoculation.

Fifteen of the people arrested were fined and five others were charged with offences including resisting arrest.

Protests were also held in Sydney, Cairns, Coffs Harbour and Albany.

Before protesters undertook rallies, Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley told reporters that while a Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport cluster was “far from being over,” the numbers indicated it was “increasingly under control”.

Twenty-two cases have been traced back to a family of three staying on the third floor of the Holiday Inn who caught the UK strain of the virus.

Authorities believe the outbreak began when one of the family members used a nebuliser medical device that caused the virus to spread through the air.

Austin Health, Monash Health and Western Health hospitals will distribute Victoria’s first doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Mr Foley said workers who are most likely to come into direct contact with COVID-positive people will be first in line for the jab from Monday.

This includes hotel quarantine workers, airport and port workers, high-risk frontline health staff and aged care staff and residents.

The federal government has allocated 12,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Victoria in the first week of the vaccination program.

“People will over time see that the vaccine is working, that it’s protecting individuals, that we’re not seeing issues of quality or safety and there will be increasing confidence,” Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton told reporters.

Six other hospitals will also become vaccination hubs as more jabs become available. They are Albury-Wodonga Health, Ballarat Health, Barwon Health, Bendigo Health, Goulburn Valley Health and Latrobe Health.

-AAP

 

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