News blog, January 13: GV Health RAT supply incoming; fourth candidate joins Nicholls contest

Expect a sunny top of 34° before the chance of a storm increases later tonight.

UPDATE, 5 pm: Fourth candidate vying for federal seat of Nicholls

A Seymour GP more than 40 years of medical experience will stand as the United Australia Party candidate for the federal seat of Nicholls at the next election.

His decision to join independent Rob Priestly, Nationals candidate Sam Birrell and Liberal candidate Stephen Brooks has come on the back of his opposition to what he refers to as the “inadequate information about the vaccines” currently offered to Australians.

Read the full story here.

And that’s where I’ll leave the news blog for the day. Enjoy your evening and come back tomorrow morning to keep News journo Max Stainkamph company on the blog.

UPDATE 4.30 pm: Free swim and BBQ every Friday

Tomorrow is the day of free things, because Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative and Kiwanis International are providing free pool entry and BBQ at Mooroopna Pool every Friday.

Anyone keen to take a dip and enjoy a snag can head down at 4.30 pm.

(All patrons 12 years and older must be double vaccinated).

UPDATE 2.40 pm: RATs to arrive at Shepparton testing centres in a few days

GV Health chief executive Matt Sharp said they expect to begin handing out rapid antigen tests at Shepparton’s testing clinic within a few days.

In an update on Thursday, Mr Sharp said the public health unit has begun to receive supplies of the tests and are currently undergoing preparations to distribute them.

“We’re really looking forward to using that as an adjunct to PCR testing,” he said.

“We will be rolling out those rapid antigen testing kits to the testing sites that we support across our public health unit.”

Household and workplace close contacts have been encouraged to attend testing sites to receive a rapid antigen tests on days one and six of isolation.

As for PCR tests, Mr Sharp said the waiting period for results has dropped down to around three days.

He said this will continue to improve as the rapid antigen tests begin to support the testing services.

“It will enable more capacity for PCR testing space which we do need,” he said.

Those wishing to receive a rapid antigen test kit from a testing will need to bring their medicare card with them to the testing site.

In other news from GV Health, they recorded 457 new COVID-19 cases across the public health unit, including 221 in Shepparton.

There is a discrepancy between the Department of Health data, which I said recorded 196 cases in Greater Shepparton earlier in the afternoon.

This is largely due to the use of different time frames in reporting.

Also, keep an eye out for more information regarding changes to the drive-through testing clinic and the Macintosh vaccination centre in a few weekends time (beginning January 21).

Shepparton Springnats Car Festival will be taking place at the showgrounds, which will impact both services.

“We’re just in the process of finalising some arrangements in terms of where we will locate the testing clinics and then do some mobile vaccinations as well,” Mr Sharp said.

There will be a full brief from the update online shortly.

UPDATE 12.15 pm: 196 new COVID-19 cases in Shepparton

There has been 196 new cases of coronavirus reported in Greater Shepparton today.

The total number of active cases now stands at 760.

Elsewhere, Campaspe has recorded 287 new cases, bringing the total to 296.

Moira Shire has recorded 75 more cases today.

UPDATE 11.45 am: Truck driver dies in Karramomus crash

A truck driver has died following a single-vehicle crash at Karramomus this morning.

Police said the truck was travelling along Coach Rd, near Karramomus Rd, when it left the bitumen and struck a tree before bursting into flames about 9.40 am.

The driver died at the scene.

More to come.

UPDATE 11.10 am: Midlands Electrical falsely listed on Find A RAT website

Midland Electrical in Shepparton has had hundreds of phone calls and people driving from as far as Echuca and Seymour after the business was listed on findarat.com.au, a website designed to help people find rapid antigen tests.

The problem is, Midland Electrical is an electrical company and never has, nor intends to, stock rapid tests.

Tom Kielty, whose parents own the business, said he had no idea who listed Midland Electrical on the site or why.

Check out the full story from Max Stainkamph here.

UPDATE 10.45 am: More workers to no longer isolate as a close contact

From next Tuesday, January 18, essential workers in emergency, education, freight and transport distribution, critical utilities and custodial facilities will be able to attend work if they are a close contact of a COVID-19 case.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said workers will be able to return to work if it is essential for the continuity of operations at their workplace.

“Exempting those workers... is a common sense way we can keep those sectors open,” Mr Andrews said.

Workers will be required to take a daily rapid antigen test for five days, wear a mask at all times and be asymptomatic.

Employees are only exempted to attend work, and will not be able to travel anywhere else.

COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said employees will also have to be separate from other workers during meal breaks, and no shared transport with other workers is permitted.

The extended list of exempted workers will come into effect at 11.59 pm, January 18.

UPDATE 9.30 am: 25 COVID-19 deaths, more than 37k new cases in Vic

The Victorian Department of Health has recorded 37,169 new cases of coronavirus today, from just over 20 thousand PCR tests and slightly under 17 thousand rapid tests.

The number of those hospitalised with the virus is now 953, and of those, 111 are in intensive care.

25 people have died with the virus in the state.

The percentage of the 18 and over population that has received a third dose of a vaccine is now 20 per cent.

In New South Wales, 92,264 new cases were recording. It’s the first day rapid antigen tests results have been included in the numbers, which accounted for double the amount of cases reported compared to PCR tests.

22 people died with the virus in the state.

UPDATE 9.15 am: New COVID-19 rules come into effect in Victoria and Pop-up Community space offering free brekky on Friday

Victoria has woken up to the latest version of pandemic restrictions on Thursday morning after they came into effect at 11.59 pm last night.

They include eased isolation requirements and vaccine mandates for critical workers, food and beverage manufacturing workers are allowed to go to work even if they are a close contact.

Aged care residents are also allowed up to five visitors a day subject to rapid antigen test results.

For a full list of restrictions click through to the Victorian Government website.

And while we are all thinking about breakfast this morning, you can head along to the Pop-Up Community Connections Space at St Augustine’s Hall for a free bacon and egg roll and coffee tomorrow.

Hosted by Standby and Wellways, the brekky is part of the response to region’s high suicide rates.

Head down to the hall between 7 am and 10 am for a meal and a chat, or you can also visit the space anytime from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday.

It’s open until February 2.

For any additional assistance or if you need a chat, you can also contact Lifeline 131 114, Beyond blue 1300 224 636, or Kids helpline 1800 551 800.