Coronavirus Melbourne active cases: How many in each Victorian council area

Only 12 Victorian areas have more people battling coronavirus as hundreds recover, but the biggest jumps were recorded in four southern municipalities. See the latest numbers in your neck of the woods.

Infections have fallen or remained steady in all but 12 Victorian council areas, with three in Melbourne’s southeast recording the biggest jumps in active cases.

There were 16 deaths and 279 new cases announced on Sunday.

The biggest increases in active cases were recorded in southern areas Kingston (132, +9), Port Phillip (83, +8), Bayside (110, +7) and Mornington Peninsula (55, +5).

The only other municipalities to have more people battling the virus on Sunday were Darebin (297, +4), Hobsons Bay (176, +2) and Boroondara (76, +2) in the metropolitan area, while regionally active cases increased slightly in Greater Shepparton (20, +2), Ballarat (27, +1), Murrindindi (2, +1) and Baw Baw (6, +1).

Large falls were reported in Wyndham (888, -28), Brimbank, (831, -25), Casey (356, -23), Whittlesea (529, -13), Hume (560, -10), Maribyrnong (234, -10), Melbourne (290, -10), Melton (506, -9), Yarra (146, -8), Monash (76, -7), Yarra Ranges (116, -7) and Moreland (402, -6).

Regional areas Greater Geelong (158, -11), Colac Otway (48, -7), Greater Bendigo (49, -5), Latrobe (23, -5), Moorabool (8, -4) and Golden Plains (7, -4) also recorded sharp falls in active cases.

Other areas to record at least four fewer active infections included Banyule (122, -5), Stonnington (65, -5), Whitehorse (75, -4), Manningham (58, -4), Maroondah (43, -4), Nillumbik (56, -4), Moonee Valley (232, -4), Greater Dandenong (204, -4)

Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton said the full effects of the tightened restrictions would be seen in the coming days.

“These are still the effect of mask wearing and stage three so that is encouraging,” he said. “We’ve turned the corner with those interventions and we should see a further driving down to transmission with stage four restrictions.

Prof Sutton said the number of Victorians taken to hospital could potentially decrease in coming weeks.

“We’ve seen a stabilisation in the number of cases, it’s essentially levelled off,” he said.

“I think we will see a levelling off of hospitalisations for community cases in the next couple of weeks and the same for deaths.

Meanwhile, Premier Daniel Andrews announced earlier this week that testing centres will be rolled out in regional Victoria as cases rise in rural areas.

“We have seen some significant growth of cases in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo and that is of concern to us,” Mr Andrews said.

Dr Norman Swan has said one of the keys to stop the virus spreading is limiting the movement of Melburnians.

“You could envisage a terrible scenario that they solve the problem in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire but regional Victoria takes off big time,” Dr Swan said.

“And it doesn’t take much to take off.”

Mr Andrews said restrictions would be in place until next year if Victorians didn’t adhere to them and case numbers didn’t decrease.

“It won’t be a 6-week strategy, it will be much, much longer,” he said.

“We will be into 2021 with significant lockdown in place. That’s not acceptable.”

Mr Andrews urged Victorians to think twice about their need to travel.

Rather than large outbreaks, unknown transmissions pose the pandemic’s greatest risk because the sources cannot be placed in isolation, leaving them free to infect swathes of the community.

It is continued growth, of what Premier Daniel Andrews has labelled “mystery cases”, which led to Melbourne’s Stage 4 restrictions.

Mr Andrews announced Stage 4 restrictions on Sunday, August 2, which means no-one can travel any further than 5km of their home to do shopping or physical exercise, and also a curfew making people stay at home from 8pm and 5am.

State 4 restrictions will be in force across metropolitan Melbourne until at least September 13.

While for regional Victorian areas – including Geelong, the Surf Coast and Mitchell Shire – Stage 3 restrictions will be in place from 11:59pm on Wednesday, August 5.

“We must do more. We must go harder. It’s the only way we’ll get to the other side of this.”

Restrictions also include staying at home between curfew hours, only one person per household is allowed to go grocery shopping each day, exercise outside the home is only permitted for one hour per day and within 5km of home.

He said there would be exemptions for people to visit their intimate partners who live apart and also for work.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT VICTORIAN CASES

As of Sunday the total number of coronavirus cases in Victoria stands at 16,764.

The overall total has increased by 247 due to 32 cases being reclassified largely due to duplication.

The state’s death toll on Sunday was 209, an increase of 16 from Saturday. Eleven are linked to known outbreaks in aged care facilities.

There are 2075 active cases related to aged care centres.

There have been 3478 cases indicating unknown transmission, an extra 95 from Saturday.

Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton said these mystery cases were a concern.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in the so-called mystery cases or cases of unknown acquisition,” Prof Sutton said.

Figures released showed people aged between 20 and 29 are the biggest driver of community transmission.

Of the total number of cases, 8070 are men and 8642 women.

There are 662 people in hospital, including 40 patients in intensive care.

There are 7671 known active cases in Victoria — 204 fewer than Saturday — and 8570 people have recovered.

Meanwhile the number of healthcare workers with active cases are 1164.

More than 1,959,300 tests have been processed.

The department follows up and monitors all close contacts of confirmed cases and provides them with information and support. All close contacts must self-isolate for 14 days.

WHAT ABOUT TOTAL CASES?

Wyndham is Victoria’s hotspot when it come to total virus cases, with the western Melbourne area having 1823 confirmed positive tests, over 100 more than Brimbank (1693).

Hume (1402) is next, while Whittlesea (1039), Melton (933), Moreland (881), Melbourne (804), Casey (756) and Moonee Valley (690) all have more than 600 total cases.

HOW DOES VICTORIA COMPARE WITH AUSTRALIA AND THE WORLD?