Active virus cases plummet

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Tara Murray

Active COVID-19 cases in Hume and Whittlesea have dropped below 10, as the statewide case count continues to fall.

Hume – a hotspot for most of the virus’ second wave – had just nine active cases as of Sunday. There were 175 active cases in Hume on September 1.

Five of the active cases are in the 3064 postcode, which includes Craigieburn and Roxburgh Park. That postcode has had 905 cases in total, the second-most in the state.

There have been just six new cases in 3064 in the past two weeks, with none since October 2.

Postcode 3049 (Westmeadows and Attwood) has two active cases, both of which are at the Baptcare Brookview Community nursing home in Westmeadows. The home has been linked to 21 cases.

Postcodes 3047 (Broadmeadows and Jacana) and 3048 (Coolarro and Meadow Heights) have one active case each.

Overall, there have been 1643 cases in Hume, the third-most in the state.

The Department of Health and Human Services has one Hume location on its list of high risk places.

A person with COVID-19 caught a train at Broadmeadows between 1pm and 3pm on both September 28 and 29, before disembarking at North Melbourne and switching trains to travel to St Albans. They then caught a bus at St Albans.

Anyone who was on the trains or bus at the times is encouraged to watch for symptoms, and if any symptoms occur, to get tested.

In Whittlesea, there were just five active cases as of Sunday.

Two of those cases are in Epping, while there is one case in each of Mill Park, South Morang and Lalor.

There have been just two news cases in the municipality in the last two weeks, after 25 the two weeks before that.

There have been 1202 cases overall in Whittlesea.

Overall, cases across Victoria continue to drop as metropolitan Melbourne edges closer to the mark needed for the easing of restrictions on October 19.

On Monday, there were just nine cases in the previous 24 hours across the state with no deaths.

It leaves the 14-day rolling average at 11.6 with 13 cases with an unknown source.