**5. Conclusions**

This farm outbreak in outer regional Victoria was the first major outbreak in the Loddon Mallee region during the time when the highly infectious Omicron VoC was spreading throughout Victoria. The pathology testing service was under unprecedented demand, and testing with RATs had just been introduced. The reporting system came online when this outbreak was underway. Furthermore, the outbreak occurred in a vulnerable population with limited English literacy, limited access to healthcare, and higher comorbidity per age

compared with the rest of the country. This was a community of seasonal farmworkers who provide essential support to the agriculture industry, the mainstay of the economy in this part of the state. The LMPHU quickly acted to engage the farm management, local pathology service, and local health service and provided cultural and language support. This efficient collaboration enabled the continued productivity of the farm and provided extra training through the IPC consultant, which is and will be an invaluable asset for any future disease exposures and/or outbreaks.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, B.B. and J.O.; methodology, A.M., A.T., B.B., C.E., J.L.D., J.O. and M.K.; formal analysis, M.K. and J.L.D.; investigation, all authors; writing—original draft preparation, M.K.; writing—review and editing, all authors; supervision, B.B.; project administration, J.O.; funding acquisition, B.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This work was supported by the Victorian Government Department of Health.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

**Data Availability Statement:** Data available at reasonable request with permission from the Victorian Government Department of Health.

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to acknowledge all individuals at the LMPHU who support this outbreak investigation and management. We would also like to thank all the stakeholders who efficiently worked to support the case identifications and cultural and language support.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

