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Active COVID cases drop 10 per cent in Greater Geelong, premier says plan out of lockdown isn’t far away

Active COVID-19 cases have dropped in Greater Geelong by six overnight to 59 as two new cases were added to the region’s tally.

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ACTIVE COVID-19 cases have dropped Greater Geelong by six overnight to 59 as two new cases were added to the region’s tally.

Since the beginning of the pandemic Greater Geelong has recorded 352 cases of COVID-19.

Active cases in the Surf Coast Shire dropped by one to three on Saturday, and stayed the same in the Colac Otway Shire at 9.

Golden Plains Shire and the Borough of Queenscliffe remain COVID-19 free, according to data released Saturday.

A week ago there were 98 active cases in Greater Geelong, one in the Golden Plains Shire, four in the Surf Coast Shire and 13 in the Colac Otway Shire.

On Saturday across regional Victoria there was 177 active cases.

Premier Daniel Andrews said stage three restrictions were working, and that the government would soon outline its plan for a way out of lockdown.

“We are seeing numbers falling steadily and that’s critically important,” Mr Andrews said

“We just need a bit more time to be confident in the fact we are defeating this.

“For the sake of being popular, perhaps for a few days, I’m not going to announce something that I don’t have the confidence in; that we don’t have enough data for.

“People can be rightly optimistic and positive about the fact that this strategy is working and that we will see this off in the second wave, and that there will be clear plan for opening up.”

Across the state, the daily increase of COVID-19 cases was at its lowest in eight weeks on Saturday with 94 new infections recorded.

It’s the first time since July 5 the state’s daily increase has been below 100.

But 18 more COVID-19 deaths, 16 of which were linked to aged care outbreaks, were recorded on Saturday. All are people aged above 60.

Mr Andrews said “test turnaround is now less than one day” and encouraged people who have mild symptoms to get tested.

More than 2 million COVID-19 test have been processed since the beginning of the year including 18,114 test on Friday.

The government has announced a volunteer portal for those looking to help people in need.

The volunteer portal can be found at www.wevolunteer.org.au/

Originally published as Active COVID cases drop 10 per cent in Greater Geelong, premier says plan out of lockdown isn’t far away

Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/active-covid-cases-rise-10-per-cent-in-greater-geelong-premier-says-plan-out-of-lockdown-isnt-far-away/news-story/e1c958fdc4ff1206f3dc879232451c2f