News / COVID-19
Brunswick school to become pop up vax centre
Child care centre and A1 Bakery among newest exposure sites
Staff Reporter
Sunday, September 12, 2021
BRUNSWICK Secondary College has been chosen to be part of the first cohort of schools that will host pop up vaccination hubs as the Victorian government’s COVID-19 vaccination blitz is ramped up.
Eight schools have been chosen for the first round of pop up clinics as the Pfizer vaccine becomes available for 12 to 15 year olds. Ultimately, 70 schools will be involved in the program.
Brunswick Secondary’s final year students will be able to receive their first Pfizer dose this Thursday under a plan previously announced before Premier Daniel Andrews extended the vaccination program to involve more schools.
Despite the school being included in the new phase of the vaccination program, Brunswick is not listed as one of the state government’s 100 priority postcodes for targeting.
A child care centre and the A1 Bakery are the latest Brunswick institutions to be caught up in Melbourne’s uncontrolled COVID-19 outbreak.
The Brunswick Creche and Day Nursery in Glenlyon Road, which claims to be the oldest in Victoria, was declared a Tier 1 COVID hotspot late on Friday night following confirmation that an infected person attended the venue on September 3.
That means that anyone else who visited the location between 6am and 8pm that day is required to get tested immediately and quarantine for 14 days.
The A1 Bakery was closed on Saturday after it was notified that two staff members had tested positive for COVID and was declared a Tier 1 exposure site.
The exposure period is between 7am and 4.30pm on both Sunday, September 5, and Monday, September 6.
This is the second time the popular Sydney Road bakery has had to close within a month during the current outbreak.
The bakery was praised on social media on Saturday for taking quick action to close as soon as it became aware of the positive case.
On its Facebook page on Saturday morning, the bakery said one of the infected staff worked Sunday and Monday, and the other one worked Monday to Wednesday.
“We have not spoken or been contacted by DHHS [Department of Health and Human Services]as of yet so we are unaware when they were infectious,” the bakery said.
“However, the only safe thing to do is close our doors until we know more and how to proceed.
“Because we were made aware of this very late in the week, we believe that if you visited our store at any time this week, it’s probably best to get tested. All our staff will be tested today.”
Coles supermarkets in Union Square and Brunswick East are also among the 12 current exposure sites in Brunswick or the south of Coburg.
On Sunday, the healthSAVE Lygon Everyday Chemist in Brunswick East was as added to the list of exposure locations, while the A1 alert was extended to include Tuesday and Wednesday last week.
In the 24 hours to midday on Sunday, Moreland recorded 49 new COVID cases to take the number of active cases in the municipality to 448.
But the majority of these are in the north of the city, with just three new cases in Brunswick for a total of 34 active cases in postcodes 3055, 3056 and 3057. Coburg had 10 new cases and Pascoe Vale also had 10 on Saturday.
As reported in Brunswick Voice this week, Moreland Council and local GPs are in discussions about opening public mass vaccination centres at venues such as the Brunswick Town Hall.
This story was originally published as ‘Child care centre joins COVID exposure list’ on September 11, 2021.
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