"Ever since we found out, we have been left running around in circles trying to find someone to help us." Loading Alice, who has mild cold-like symptoms including a runny nose, said she had made numerous attempts to contact the Health Department via phone and text message. To date, she said, she had received no response to her pleas for help. She was unaware that she and Poppy, who was not showing symptoms, had been potentially exposed to the deadly virus until she received a text message from the Health Department early on Saturday morning. "Instead of the coronavirus hotline or a nurse on-call we were sent a generic Health Department number for infectious diseases," Alice said. "I was virtually on the phone, on hold for two days, before we were finally told we had been given the wrong number to begin with."

The government text message warned her that she had been in close contact with an infected person at the Toorak clinic and ordered the family to self-isolate for 14 days. Dr Chris Higgins (pictured with musician daughter Missy) kept working although he had the symptoms of a mild cold, which later turned out to be COVID-19. Credit:ASRC/Facebook Alice immediately called the number the text message had been sent from and was told by the operator an email would be sent to her within the hour with instructions on what to do and how to get tested. She told The Age she never received the email, despite calling the number multiple times on Saturday. "We took it upon ourselves yesterday to go and get tested at The Alfred after speaking with a nurse on-call, she said.

The family now faces an anxious two-day wait for test results. Loading On top of the first warning text, Alice received two other texts from the Health Department, seen by The Age, which asked her to respond "yes" if the family had experienced any flu-like symptoms. In both instances, she replied "yes". "The department never responded to the texts messages or followed up with any phone calls," she said. Dr Higgins has demanded an apology from state Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, who said on Saturday that she was "flabbergasted" that he had continued to treat patients while experiencing "flu-like" symptoms.

Dr Higgins, the father of singer-songwriter Missy Higgins, said on Facebook he felt Ms Mikakos' comments were inaccurate and unfair. "I hesitated to do a swab because I did not fulfil your criteria for testing but did one anyway on Thursday evening for the sake of completeness, not imagining for one moment it would turn out positive," he wrote. Ms Mikakos identified Dr Higgins' practice but not him individually. When asked about Dr Higgins' conduct, Alice said she did not blame him and would continue to visit him as their family GP. "I feel like Dr Higgins has been used as bit of scapegoat," Alice said. "He is a good doctor. The real problem is that lot of people are probably going to get coronavirus and there doesn't seem to be the preparation in place that there needs to be. That's what I am angry about."

On Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services apologised for the miscommunication and said the government had been in contact with the family overnight to offer support and "clarify the situation." Melbourne GPs have rallied around Dr Higgins. In a letter sent to Ms Mikakos and federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, the doctors said GPs were watching events unfolding "with increasing horror". Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "We know from the experience of other countries that many doctors have become sick and died in the course of doing their jobs in this outbreak," they said in the letter. Of the more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus around the world fewer than 1 per cent have been in children aged under nine.