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Canberra Today 17°/20° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Community transmission’s inevitable, says chief health officer

ACT chief health officer Kerryn Coleman

WHILE ACT chief health officer Dr Kerryn Coleman is optimistic about the numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases in the ACT so far, she says community transmission is inevitable. 

It is inevitable. We can only hold this down for a certain amount of time,” says Dr Coleman. 

“Every single one of our cases to date has been the result of overseas travel where a high-risk area is or as a close contact with a confirmed case. So, while I am reasonably optimistic at this point in time, we will see more cases and there will be a point in time where we will see community transmission.

“When we do get community transmission we need to continue to suppress that and do as much as we can to minimise the impact of that community transmission.

“What’s happening at the moment reflects very well on both the staff who are doing the public health action as well as the community getting involved and doing all of the right things.”

Dr Coleman says the ACT might also start to see cases linked to NSW.

“[But] think for the next week or two we will probably start to see a similar number of cases every day from those already known risk groups but we need to continue to be on the lookout for other cases popping up,” she says. 

There are currently 53 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the ACT.

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Ian Meikle, editor

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