By Mitchell Clarke
Premier Daniel Andrews has vowed to look into whether suburb specific information relating to positive confirmed Covid-19 cases could be made public.
Currently, daily coronavirus figures from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) only provide data for local government areas (LGAs), rather than specific suburbs.
Cardinia Shire residents have long been calling for more transparency on the location of cases, as the area spans 1283 square kilometres.
The question was put to the Premier during a regional press conference on Friday, to which he said he would put the questions to Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, professor Brett Sutton.
He said providing details on suburbs or towns brought up the challenge of maintaining privacy, especially in regional areas, where there are such small numbers of cases.
“I’m more than happy to take it up with the Chief Health Officer and see if there’s more information we can provide that won’t cut across the privacy of any individual that has a positive test,” Mr Andrews said.
“It’s always a difficult balance to strike … What we never want to have is a situation where people might be reticent to come forward and get tested if they thought they were going to be, in effect, named, because that could have a whole range of different consequences.”
Mr Andrews said the daily coronavirus numbers weren’t reported for the purpose of trying to worry people, but rather to try to provide transparency throughout the pandemic.
“If there’s a bit more information we can give you then I’m more than happy to ask Brett to have a think about that,” he said.
“There might be some ways we can maintain privacy but still give a better sense of where it (the virus) is, and therefore where it isn’t.”
As of Tuesday 21 July, there were 18 active cases in Cardinia, 103 in Casey, three in Baw Baw and one in Bass Coast.
DHHS have been contacted for comment.
