Outreach clinics for COVID-19 testing at district towns

SWAN Hill District Health (SHDH) began providing outreach clinics in district towns from Wednesday to screen symptomatic people for COVID-19 infection.

Running until June 11, clinics will run in Piangil and Nyah on Wednesdays and in Woorinen South and Lake Boga on Thursdays.

Only people with symptoms of COVID-19 will be tested and these symptoms include fever, chills or sweats, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose and loss of sense of smell.

Tests are free and a Medicare card is not required, however identification must be presented.

Information will remain private and a doctor will make contact with test results.

The SHDH acute respiratory assessment clinic (ARAC) is open Monday to Friday, 9am-4pm.

The clinics come on the back of a statewide blitz of testing that ended on May 10, where 667 people were tested, bringing the total tests conducted by the ARAC to almost 1000 people.

No further cases have been diagnosed in the Swan Hill municipality and the total number of confirmed cases remains at three.

Across the state, there have been a total of 1581 cases of COVID-19, as of yesterday, and 18 people have died while 1473 people have recovered.

Regional Victoria makes up for 232 of the total cases.

There have been 168 confirmed cases that may have been acquired through community transmission.

More than 378,000 tests have been received by the DHHS since January 1.

Victoria's state of emergency has been extended until 11.59pm on May 31.

"Today's increase in cases illustrates once again that while we have been flattening the curve, our battle against COVID-19 is far from over," Victoria's Chief Health Officer, Professor Brett Sutton said.

"Restrictions around some activities have now been eased in Victoria in recognition of the current low rate of community transmission of this virus.

"While encouraging, we need to remain vigilant. We must maintain physical distancing, practice hygiene and self-isolation when ill. These are common sense actions to ensure we don't create a second wave of this serious disease, as we have seen in other countries once they have eased their stringent regulations.

"Victorians have done a remarkable job so far sticking to the coronavirus restrictions and staying at home has saved lives. But now is not the time for complacency."