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'No changes': Melbourne's restrictions remain in place as state records seven new COVID-19 cases
By Paul Sakkal and Hanna Mills Turbet
On a much-anticipated day of announcements, Premier Daniel Andrews had just one on Sunday: there would be no easing of restrictions across metropolitan Melbourne.
"I know plenty of people were looking forward to some good news today. And soon, very soon, we'll have some," he said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said an announcement about changes to restrictions would be delayed by up to 48 hours.Credit: Getty
Mr Andrews said six new cases in the northern suburbs meant the cluster had grown to 39 cases across 11 households, and more test results needed to be processed before restrictions were eased across metropolitan Melbourne.
"We have around 1000 swabs currently being processed – and we’re expecting even more today. We’ll use the next couple of days to review those results and understand exactly how this virus is travelling," Mr Andrews said.
Victoria recorded seven new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday – the same number as Saturday – and no new deaths. The state's 14-day rolling average dropped to 4.9, just below the threshold of five that was initially set to move to the next phase of the reopening road map.
Mr Andrews said he hoped to be able to announce an easing of restrictions by Tuesday, once he was confident the northern suburbs outbreak was under control.
Mr Andrews acknowledged the deep frustration of Victorians and said his public health team needed to rule out the possibility of widespread community transmission in the northern suburbs. "I do hope to make definitive announcements about opening up metropolitan Melbourne in a couple of days' time," he said.
Health authorities are sweating on about 60 key tests that will indicate the extent of the northern suburbs spread.
About 250 tests of first-ring close contacts – those who had direct contact with known cases – were tested on Saturday. On Sunday, a further 60 were expected to be tested, mostly from the East Preston Islamic College and Croxton special school which will remain closed this week.
Dedicated testing facilities have been set up to test members of these school communities. Anyone with links to the school, even if they were not showing symptoms, have been being urged to get tested.
"There are two sets here. We are very interested in the close contacts because we want to establish if there are any positive cases in that group, because they are the ones most likely to [test positive]," the state's testing commander Jeroen Weimer said.
"If we're going to find any more cases, that is the area where we are most likely to find them. The purpose of the wider community testing approach ... [is to test] workers at the schools but also anyone remotely symptomatic in the suburbs to get tested."
Of about 17,200 tests completed on Friday, 2802 were in the northern suburbs – an increase of 35 per cent on the week before.
After a promising week of low, single-digit case numbers, the government had earlier advised retailers that staff could return to work to start preparing their stores from Wednesday this week in a "dark" opening.
In good news for regional Victoria, Mr Andrews said that from 11.59pm on Tuesday, indoor gyms and fitness spaces will be open to up to 20 people with a maximum of 10 people per space.
Indoor pools will be allowed to open to up to 20 people and indoor sport will begin for under 18s.
Food courts will be allowed to open and live music will be allowed outdoors. School graduations will also be permitted.