Victorian chief health officer professor Brett Sutton says state is ‘on track’ towards reopening date

Victoria’s health chief is confident the state is on track to reopen and says one of the most hated rules could soon be scrapped.

Victoria’s chief health officer is confident the state is on track towards a reopening date of October 26 despite another surge in Covid-19 cases.

Professor Brett Sutton said reopening predictions were “more or less at that range” but were still dependent on Victorians coming forward to get the vaccine.

As of Monday morning, at least 82 per cent of eligible Victorians had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, with 52.1 per cent fully vaccinated.

The government would start to strip away restrictions once Victoria reached a 70 per cent double-dose vaccination rate of 70 per cent on October 26.

Victorians would be granted more freedoms in early November at an 80 per cent double-dose jab rate.

“12-15 year olds are coming forward to get vaccinated in record numbers. It is literally a vertical line looking at the vaccination coverage,” Professor Sutton said.

“That means they are not far behind in terms of having our double dosed 80 per cent coverage for 16 and above, followed by the same kind of coverage for 12 and above, within a couple of days.”

Professor Brett Sutton says the state is on track towards its reopening predictions. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Professor Sutton indicated Melbourne’s 9pm-5am curfew could be among one of the restrictions scrapped by the end of the month, and even earlier if possible.

“We are happy to consider it (scrapping the curfew earlier) but we saw a genuine increase in case numbers after the grand final,” he said.

“We know that was related to people moving across households, and it spread into regional Victoria households, new households across regional Victoria on the east and southeast of metropolitan Melbourne.”

The government will strip away restrictions once Victoria reaches a 70 per cent double-dose vaccination rate of 70 per cent on October 26. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Professor Sutton said he wanted to see days of more than 100,000 Victorians in the near future so the state could hit its targets sooner.

Just 31,000 Victorians were vaccinated on Sunday.

“We are doing 30,000 – 40,000 in Victoria and above throughout our hubs but there is capacity especially in pharmacies and primary care,” he said.

“GPs are absolutely qualified to be delivering vaccines as well in Victoria and so we can do better and we should do better but it involves everyVictorian who is not yet fully vaccinated coming forward to get the vaccine.

“With the reduced interval for Pfizer, down to three weeks, there is an opportunity for people who have had that later appointment to redo the appointment and get fully vaccinated now and that makes a difference.”

Originally published as Victorian chief health officer professor Brett Sutton says state is ‘on track’ towards reopening date