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VICTORIANS have been urged to avoid complacency around COVID-19, despite 28 days without diagnosed cases.
Health authorities say Victorians should be proud of getting to that point, but have urged the community to maintain COVID-safe precautions.
The Department of Health and Human Services has encouraged Victorians to wear masks in indoor public spaces, practice social distancing and good hygiene and follow the rules around social gatherings.
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DHHS said above all Victorians should get tested if they had even very mild COVID-19-like symptoms.
It said Victoria's fight with COVID-19 was not over, with significant outbreaks across the world.
The department urged any residents of and visitors to Geelong's northern suburbs and Lara between Saturday November 21 and Tuesday November 23 to get tested if they had symptoms, due to fragments of COVID-19 detected in wastewater.
A total 9828 COVID-19 test results were received on Friday.
Earlier
THERE have been zero new COVID-19 cases and zero deaths in Victoria for the 28th consecutive day.
Health authorities said 28 days with no new cases showed the virus was eliminated from the community, given that period represented two 14-day incubation periods.
But the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday confirmed coronavirus fragments were detected in wastewater in Corio, near Geelong.
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Residents and visitors to Geelong's northern suburbs and Lara from November 21 to November 23 were urged to get tested if they had any symptoms, no matter how mild.
Acting chief health officer Allen Cheng said the viral fragments could be from residents or visitors who were shedding the virus.
"We have had few of these positive wastewater results recently and, while we haven't discovered any undiagnosed case of coronavirus, it is possible that there may be an infectious person in this catchment," Professor Cheng said.
"We encourage people in this area who are symptomatic to be tested and will update the community once more testing results become available."
Coronavirus fragments were last week detected in wastewater in Altona, Benalla, and Portland.
Despite increased testing of residents and visitors in those locations, there were no further positive COVID-19 cases.
The DHHS data released on Friday showed there were no active coronavirus cases in the state.
There were 9828 people who were tested for the virus on Thursday.
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