BARISTAS, teachers, and supermarket and construction workers not showing any COVID-19 symptoms are urged to get tested in a new pop-up clinic to better help health officials plot the next moves on lockdown.
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More than 130 people were screened on the opening day of testing in the soccer stadium at Morshead Park.
Ballarat Health Services, in partnership with City of Ballarat, is pushing to dramatically increase this testing rate in big play to better understand the virus' spread across the city within the next four days.
This is in line with a Victorian government blitz with Premier Daniel Andrews calling for 100,000 tests statewide in the two weeks to the state of emergency review this coming Monday.
The new test site in Ballarat added to a record day with 520 people screened across the city, including people showing symptoms at Sebastopol (99 people) and Lucas (130). A further 154 BHS staff without symptoms were tested at the Base Hospital.
BHS acute operations executive director Ben Kelly said a large volume of tests was needed for a good snapshot of Ballarat and to flag potential community transmission.
While BHS is targeting the city's major employers, including workers within its own ranks, the health service has also been working to create broader community clinic bases to test people who do not show any symptoms.
The Morshead Park pop-up clinic is predominantly to screen people who have been unable to work from home, like those in cafes, and dealing with the public. It is a walk-up site but only for people without any symptoms.
BHS reiterates anyone with even the mildest coronavirus-like symptoms - from a runny nose and scratchy throat to muscle soreness and headaches or chills - to book into the fever clinics at Sebastopol or Lucas.
Anyone with symptoms, no matter how slight, should also be self-isolating.
BHS and UFS, which leads the Lucas clinic, have been and will remain strict on who can be tested at the Sebastopol (public dental) and Lucas (community hub) sites.
Coronavirus is spread by droplets in the breath, not just coughs and sneezes, and can also be spread via surfaces contaminated by an infected person's touch.
The ability of the virus to be spread via asymptomatic people - those without showing any symptoms - as well as a pre-symptomatic period lasting days, is a major concern for health officials in both spreading the virus and causing the pandemic.
Studies into asymptomatic cases remain ongoing worldwide, according to multiple medical and health experts on The Conversation. This is why more broader testing of communities could be vital.
Ballarat has not had any new COVID-19 cases for 34 days and cases in neighbouring shires have also remained low.
Victoria recorded a further 17 cases on Tuesday, including 11 more from an abattoir cluster, as testing expands.
Mr Kelly said it was important Ballarat residents did not become complacent with the city's good record and behaviour in lockdown.
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