Active coronavirus cases in Melbourne, Victorian council areas
More than 50 locked-down Melbourne postcodes now have no active cases, with 22 more metro suburbs — including the Premier’s — added to the COVID-19-free list. But one had nine new cases. FULL LIST: See all of Melbourne’s virus-free suburbs.
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More than 50 locked-down metropolitan Melbourne postal areas have no active virus infections, it can be revealed, with several never recording a case.
An analysis of Department of Health and Human Services data found that, as of Wednesday, more than 500 postcodes across Victoria are presently COVID-19 free, including 53 metro Melbourne postal areas.
Two metro postal delivery areas — Heatherton and Yarrambat — have never had a positive coronavirus test.
And even more COVID-19-free postcodes — such as The Patch (3792) — are in councils deemed as metropolitan, placing them under stringent Stage 4 lockdown.
Thirty metro postcodes with more than 10,000 people do not have an active case, with 3156 — which takes in Ferntree Gully and surrounds — the most populous at 37,458.
Nine more metro postcodes became coronavirus-free on Thursday.
SEE THE FULL LIST OF VIRUS-FREE METRO POSTCODES BELOW
Previously virus-free postcode area Hawksburn and Toorak (3142) recorded two new cases, while Banyule, Eaglemont, Heidelberg, Rosanna and Viewbank (3084) and Kooyong, Malvern, Malvern North (3144) also dropped off the COVID-19-free list.
Altona and Seaholme (3018) were among the nine new coronavirus-free postcodes, despite the postal area directly to its north (3025 — Altona East, Altona Gate, Altona North) recording nine new cases.
On a day where 51 new cases and seven deaths were announced, active infections fell heavily across several hotspot postcodes.
3030 — which takes in Werribee, Point Cook, Quandong, Corcoroc and Werribee South — fell from 103 to 80, which means there is now no Victorian postcode with more than 100 active cases.
The postcode with the most infections is now 3029 (Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit, Truganina), which has 84.
Melbourne’s rolling 14-day daily average case number is 70.1 and regional Victoria is 4.5.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced how the road out of lockdown would look on Sunday, with the plan including an extra fortnight of pain, but with some small easing of restrictions.
In the coming weeks, five suburban contract tracing Response Units will be set up to swoop on outbreaks early on.
Mr Andrews said “pouncing on outbreaks” had proven as a successful strategy in the regions and said these local teams would provide “the very beat and localised response”.
He said regional Victoria’s stage three lockdown restrictions could be eased as early as next week.
“If the trend continues, and the numbers are very promising, we’ll be able to take a step, or steps, as early as toward the end of next week,” he said.
“And that then avoids having to divide the state up into regions, have police enforce all of those boundaries.”
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he was confident the road map would work and the achieving numbers as low as five were possible.
He said that any setbacks did occur, they would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
“I hope there’s no moving back,” Prof Sutton said. “(But) I think we can address them on their merits.”
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Graphs courtesy of covid19data.com.au
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT VICTORIAN CASES
As of Thursday, the total number of coronavirus cases in Victoria stands at 19,728.
The overall total has increased by 40 due to 11 cases being reclassified.
The state’s death toll is now 701, an increase of seven from Wednesday. Four are linked to known outbreaks in aged care facilities.
There are 1483 active cases in Victoria — 139 fewer than Wednesday. There are 763 related to aged care centres — 66 fewer than Wednesday.
There have been 4306 cases indicating unknown transmission – seven fewer than Wednesday.
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