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Any plans to expand criteria for priority testing for COVID-19 must include Victoria’s agriculture workforce, says Shadow Minister for Agriculture Peter Walsh.
The Premier told Victorians today that “with such a substantial reduction in the tests we have to do on returned travellers, we have the potential to increase testing in other settings”.
Currently, even a suspected case of coronavirus will put the brakes on our farmers’ and food processors’ ability to continue their critical work keeping our supermarket shelves fully stocked.
The Victorian Government must be proactive and include priority testing for workers across the food supply chain, including workers on farms, abattoirs, food processing factories and at saleyards.
All Victorians face unprecedented change and uncertainty as we take extreme steps to stop COVID-19 and save lives.
Priority testing is a positive action we can take as a state to secure our food supply chain and ensure farm businesses can quickly, and safely, resume operations as we fight the spread of COVID-19.
Please download this press release as a PDF