Pressure is building throughout Shepparton where businesses and Gouburn Valley Health are dealing with staff shortages due to the sheer number of people having to isolate as close contacts.
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The Shepparton cluster is now at 50.
Goulburn Valley Health estimated 17,000 people are in isolation, a third of Shepparton's population. More than 5800 people are classed as close contacts.
There are more than 80 local exposure sites including multiples schools and supermarkets.
Coles has reduced its trading hours and cut capacity for home delivery and Click and Collect due to staff shortages.
Community groups are stepping up to provide for people in isolation.
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Health Minister Martin Foley said the Department of Health was working with local agencies including council to ensure all residents had the support they needed to access essential items.
"We're working through all of those issues... to make sure that the people of Shepparton, and the Goulburn Valley more broadly, get all the support they need," he said.
"It's a challenge, but it's a challenge I know that the people of Shepparton, and the people of Victoria, are up to."
The Australia Defence Force and Victoria Police are being called in to assist with the Shepparton outbreak.
ADF personnel will door-knock residents for compliance and undertake home engagement to see if people need support during quarantine.
At a community meeting held by Goulburn Valley Health and the Victorian Department of Health on Tuesday night,chief executive Matt Sharp said 420 staff had been furloughed due to being close contacts.
So far 12,000 people have been tested.
Health Department infectious diseases expert Professor Paul Johnson told residents the department could arrange for scripts to be filled and groceries delivered.
"When we're lawfully asking you to quarantine, you don't starve... if you're running out of things there is a system to support you which you need to communicate with," he said.
Professor Johnson said so far there were 'no genuine mystery cases' and all cases were linked across 15 households. He said Shepparton had been through an outbreak before, but the current outbreak had grown 'really really quickly'.
Most cases have been transmitted through households, schools and retail premises.
Deputy Secretary, Engagement and Delivery Health Department Phuong Pham said the virus had been transmitted through quite fleeting contact which is why the government had implemented stringent isolation and 'stop and stay' requirements for people who had attended exposure sites.
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Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
