A sign at the front of the facility warned visitors that they were at risk of acquiring an "influenza-like illness" by visiting the centre. The aged-care patients are being closely monitored and have been isolated in their rooms. Dr Chris Higgins and daughter Missy, pictured at a fundraising telethon several years ago. Credit:ASRC/Facebook Dr Higgins, from The Toorak Clinic in Malvern Road, is the eleventh person to test positive in Victoria for coronavirus.

The medical clinic has been closed and all patients that came into contact with the doctor, as well as clinic staff, are required to self-isolate for 14 days. The Department of Health and Human Services is contacting them via text message and email with contact details for further advice and they will be monitoring them for signs and symptoms. Loading The department is also working with authorities to obtain the passenger details from the flight. ''I have to say I'm absolutely flabbergasted that the doctor who has experienced flu-like symptoms has presented to work," Ms Mikakos said.

GPs are furious with the comments, taking to social media to argue the health minister essentially named and shamed Dr Higgins when he had not travelled to a high-risk zone and therefore did not break any rules. ''The eyes of general practice are on you,'' one GP wrote. ''Now you know we will be thrown under the bus, you don't have our backs.'' ''Demand this ill-informed health minister apologise immediately for her appalling comments, throwing a hard-working GP under the bus for doing his job and following guidelines,'' another GP added. The minister responded that GPs ''play an integral role in our response to COVID-19'' and that patient privacy would be protected. ''However, we have a public health duty to the wider community to provide information about exposure points, which require details about business locations and flights be made public to allow for contact tracing. ''I know this can be very challenging and distressing for those involved and I am deeply sympathetic to this, but public safety has to be our priority.''

A passenger on board the same flight as Dr Higgins, who did not want to be named, said nobody had contacted him by Saturday evening. "I found out about all this when I read the article online, the airline hadn't called me," he said. "I have no idea if I sat near this man or not, it's probably unlikely, but I'm not sure. He said he called the hotline and was told because he wasn't showing symptoms, he wouldn't be tested. "Instead I was asked to isolate myself for seven days since it's already been a week, which I'll do. "It was all quite underwhelming. I thought they'd be sending down an ambulance with a police escort."

A fellow doctor at the clinic said staff were on an emergency phone hook-up around lunchtime Saturday discussing how to respond to the diagnosis. He said the clinic strongly defended the sick doctor’s actions, saying he could not have known his runny nose was not simply a sign of a common cold. “He didn’t travel anywhere where the source of the virus was. He went nowhere where he thought he would be at risk,” the colleague said. Five of the clinic’s doctors, who were recently in contact with Dr Higgins, are self-isolating at home, he said. Three doctors did not come into recent contact with him and are likely to return to work soon. Victorian Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said each individual organisation was responsible for setting their own occupational health and safety standards.

"We expect clinicians to apply their own judgement. If they feel unwell and think there is a chance they have an infection, they should not go to work," he said. The department advised that testing should be considered in all returned travellers if they have symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said that until now, the 'general principle' for testing included people who are coming from high-risk counties or medium risk countries (the US is not on that list) to be tested. However, he said given the extensive spread of the virus he believed "anyone who returns from travelling should consider that." Ms Mikakos advised people who are concerned to contact the Department of Health and Human Services hotline for information on COVID-19 on 1800 675 398. "We’ve had almost 8000 calls to the hotline number since it’s been established.

''We do expect we’ll get inundated with calls today as a result of this," said Ms Mikakos. Four COVID-19 screening clinics opened on Saturday, at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Alfred hospital and The Austin and at Box Hill Hospital. Loading "In recent weeks I have been advising the community about our health system preparedness as we gear up for what is a likely pandemic," she said. "We do expect we will have a significant increase in demand as this virus spreads in the community."

Ms Mikakos stressed that the clinics were not for walk-in patients, and that people should call the COVID-19 hotline before attending a clinic, as well as call ahead to the hospital they intend to visit. "People will be checked for symptoms and they will have a swab collected if that's required," she said. "(Patients) will present at the ED triage, and will then be sent to the screening clinic for testing. In coming days, some hospitals will establish separate entrances." There have been 3000 coronavirus tests in Victoria and more than 2500 negative results. The president of Australian Medical Association Victoria, associate professor Julian Rait, urged medical practitioners to "exercise extreme caution" and refrain from going to work if they have any symptoms of illness "even a runny nose or a scratchy throat, which could be the first signs (of coronavirus)".

"Doctors who have been travelling to high risk countries should have a high level of suspicion should they develop any respiratory tract symptoms, or even gastrointestinal symptoms. They should not go to work," he said. "That said it is unfair to apply retrospective judgements about health workers given the rapidly evolving nature of this epidemic and the advice that has been given." He said businesses should be preparing work-from-home plans for staff to try to reduce the reproduction rate of the virus. "We're moving to a stage now where we need to consider those sorts of measures ... if we're seeing sustained community transmission then those plans need to be enacted. Businesses need to be considering that now. "The main thing is to reduce the opportunity for the virus to spread and if we can reduce the replication rate to under one (person) we can hope to contain it."

Ms Mikakos said the department had had discussions with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency about the matter and was requesting AHPRA and the federal government to issue advice to all doctors around the country reminding them of the types of things they should be looking for and "to make sure they are not presenting a risk to their patients". Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton said it was "imperative" that healthcare workers understood their risk. "It is irresponsible for people to be going to work if they are unwell. That's not just healthcare workers, that's everybody in the community needs to take this very seriously," Dr Sutton said. "In general practice there are lots of elderly patients, these are exactly the patients who are at higher risk for severe disease."

Loading "So you have a particular obligation to exclude yourself from work if you are unwell and if you have an inkling that you might have COVID-19 then you need to isolate, then get tested, get the result and return to work quickly. "We can turn the result around within 24 hours, so you shouldn’t feel shy about getting tested. He said people who are over 65 years old, and those with pre-existing illnesses are at particular risk and so aged care is an area where people need to take absolute precautions. Mass gatherings such as the Grand Prix and Moomba are still going ahead at "this early stage", but anyone with symptoms should stay away.