Good afternoon Ms Black

I refer to your application under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the
Act) requesting access to:

“... Can you please provide me with a spreadsheet of deidentified case
reporting data for the period 1/7/2020 - 14/8/2020 that includes the
following detail:

- Test (Sample Collection) Date

- Notification Date (to the department)

- Method of positive test detection (PCR or serology)

- Test Location (drive-in testing site [D], hospital admission [H], GP
[GP], self-collected [SC], routine workplace onsite testing [HCW]

- Required to Isolate? (Y/N)

- Postcode of isolation location (most likely residence but could be
hospital if admitted)

- New Case [N] or routine (repeated) test as part of health care
management [R] ** this is important so there is not overestimating of the
number of individual people who are currently infected to better calculate
the viral shedding loads into the wastewater network, not just the number
of positive test cases as many tests can be done on one person.

- Recovery Date (this can be the actual if reported or estimated date,
loosely I've been using 10 days after notification date for
recoveries/release from isolation but this would help to more accurately
pinpoint where we see viral loads lessen if it's a known infection or
not)..."

Your application was received on 27 August 2020.

The Act provides that an application fee of $29.60 must accompany each
request. In the current circumstances, the department's preferred method
of payment is via the Victorian Government's online FOI portal at the
below link:

[1]https://online.foi.vic.gov.au/foi/reques...

Please quote your reference number (F20/1425) in the "Request Details"
section of the online form. You do not need to provide the wording of your
request again.

The Act also provides that the application fee may be waived or reduced if
payment of the fee would cause financial hardship. If you consider this to
be the case the fee may be waived or reduced on production of evidence of
how the payment of the application fee would cause you hardship. 

As stated on the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner’s
website, an applicant should provide evidence of hardship when they are
requesting an agency to waive or reduce the application fee:

‘If you request the application fee to be waived or reduced, you should
provide evidence of hardship – for example, a concession or health care
card, a bank statement, or statutory declaration outlining why payment
would cause you hardship.’

Please note your request cannot proceed until the application fee or
evidence of hardship has been received as it is not a valid request.

Please also note that, due to a high volume of requests, we are currently
experiencing significant delays in processing times. You may be contacted
in the course of processing your request to seek an extension of time for
providing a decision on your request.

I would appreciate it if you would respond by 7 October 2020, otherwise I
will assume that you do not wish to proceed and no further action will be
taken by the department.

Please direct all correspondence relating to your request to
[2][Victorian Department of Health and Human Services request email].

Kind Regards,

Authorised Officer

Freedom of Information unit
Executive Services | Legal and Executive Services
Department of Health and Human Services | 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
VIC 3000
e. [3][Victorian Department of Health and Human Services request email]

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References

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1. https://online.foi.vic.gov.au/foi/reques...
2. mailto:[Victorian Department of Health and Human Services request email]
3. mailto:[Victorian Department of Health and Human Services request email]

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