ALBURY Wodonga Health (AWH) and Beechworth Health Service (BHS) have confirmed two residents have tested positive to COVID–19 at Blackwood Cottage, Beechworth.

Blackwood Cottage is a residential mental health facility which is located within BHS, with operations run by AWH.

All Blackwood Cottage residents and all staff across the site have undertaken RAT and PCR tests earlier this week, with two residents returning positive results yesterday.

Families have been notified and a deep clean of the facility is under way.

Both health services are undertaking precautionary measures to reduce the risks and maintain the safety of staff and patients in line with their outbreak management plans.

Visitor restrictions are already in place at Beechworth Health Service facilities and investigations are under way to determine how the residents contracted the virus.

Indigo Shire recorded 20 new COVID–19 cases on Wednesday bringing the total active cases to 173 and a total of 333 since the pandemic began.

With the number of COVID–19 close contacts continuing to grow, Victoria's public health team will provide more essential workers with an exemption from close contact home isolation requirements to attend their workplace.

From 11:59pm, Tuesday, January 18, workers in emergency services, education, critical utilities, custodial facilities, transport and freight will join workers in the food production sector as being eligible for the exemption.

Under the conditions of the exemption, the worker may return to work if it is necessary for continuity of operations and if other options have been exhausted. The exemption will apply to attending work only, not any other settings.

In order to be eligible, the worker must first notify the employer of their status as a contact, and critically, both parties must consent to the worker returning to the workplace. They are already required to be fully vaccinated.

Strong measures will be required to reduce the risk of a contact attending work while infectious:

• The worker must undertake a daily Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) for five days and return a negative result prior to attending work each day

• They must wear a face mask at all times, with exceptions in the case of eating or drinking, or safety reasons, and a P2/N95 respirator is preferred

• The worker cannot enter shared break areas and the employer must try and facilitate solo break time. The employer must also take reasonable steps to deploy the worker in areas where transmission risk is lower

• If at any time the worker develops symptoms or tests positive on a RAT, the exemption no longer applies – they are a case, must isolate for 7 days, and must notify others including their employer.

More information on the conditions of the exemption and applicable cohorts of workers will be published at www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/isolation–exemptions when they come into effect next Tuesday.