South-west residents appear to be divided on whether people should be penalised for not providing the correct residential address when tested for coronavirus.
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A survey conducted by The Standard posed this question after Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell said she was concerned about confusion about where people who had tested positive resided.
Her comments came after a case that was initially assigned to the Warrnambool City Council was later found to be a person who lived elsewhere but had a south-west residential address.
Ms Britnell said she was not calling for addresses, just a postcode - especially in shires that cover large areas.
Penalties should be considered to avoid confusion, 54 per cent of the 400 respondents said.
One person said there should be penalties if someone deliberately provides incorrect information, but others said mistakes happen.
"Lots of people move out of family home but don't change address," wrote one respondent.
Other people said they believed others had a right to privacy.
"I don't think we need names and addresses of these people, but certainly a post code and a bit of an idea of where they may have shopped etc," wrote another.
"There should be more transparency but no penalty unless a law was breached," said one respondent.
"Knowing roughly where infected people contracted from is important as the place can have a big clean. Especially schools, so other students can then be alert to be watching out for symptoms. No one need to know exact address (respect the privacy of that and avoid unnecessary discrimination). But as a community, a level of transparency is important to combat the possible spread unnecessarily, " another person said.
"Absolutely! It will prevent the likes of my son and I who both have serious health conditions from going to any of those areas," wrote another.
People were also asked whether regional Victoria should be placed in lockdown, with 55 per cent responding yes.
But other people said the state government should only lockdown areas with a high number of cases.
"Not unless there is community transmission," wrote one person.
"Limit the distance people can travel to 20 kilometres. And for goodness sake stricter checking of people travelling by train to this area," wrote another.
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