Coronavirus Victoria: New date for step three in Melbourne

October 19 has been flagged as the new golden date for Melburnians to reach a milestone in the easing of restrictions. And it’s a week ahead of schedule.

Melbourne will move to step three of its road map out of lockdown, one week ahead of schedule.

Premier Daniel Andrews has announced on Sunday that restrictions will ease from midnight and the city will take step three on October 19.

“October 19 is three weeks away and our experts are confident that that is enough of the life-cycle of this virus, given its latency, that is enough time for us to be certain that the numbers we see are a true reflection,” he said in a press conference today.

Victoria recorded just 16 new coronavirus cases today.

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RELATED: Melbourne’s second step out of lockdown now commencing

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews congratulated Victorians in following the rules which has pushed the state a week ahead of schedule. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“Now, as each and every Melburnian knows only too well, our target today was to get to a rolling 14 day average of between 30 and 50 cases. The fact that we are at 22.1 cases over that 14 day period as a rolling average means that this strategy is working,” Mr Andrews said.

“It is more than working. We are ahead of schedule, we have made more progress than we hoped to make at this point in time.”

As a result, he’s pushed forward the dates for step three of Melbourne’s roadmap out of lockdown.

“The dates we are catered previously was essentially end October and end November,” he said.

“We believe we will be able to take that important step on October 19.

“That is fully a week earlier than what we had thought.”

Metro Melbourne was supposed to enter step three on October 26.

The third step would see restrictions on leaving home removed, and would allow 10 people to meet outdoors.

Cafes, restaurants, beauty and personal care, and some outdoor entertainment venues would be able to open. Restaurants would open in a predominantly outdoor capacity, with a group limit of 10 people and density limits.

Premier Daniel Andrews walks into the daily briefing to give an update on the state of Victoria. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

However, Mr Andrews emphasised that this date was not set in stone.

“Our move to the third and last steps will no longer be defined by dates in the calendar,” he said.

“Instead, the ‘trigger point’ for review by our public health team will be based solely on reaching our case number targets. That means the sooner we hit those targets – the sooner we can consider our next steps.”

If targets stay the way they are, October 19 will be the likely date.

Mr Andrews also announced that metropolitan Melbourne would be commencing its second step from 11.59pm tonight — which involves lifting many restrictions on shopping, outdoor gatherings and exercise.

Statement on Melbourne moving to the Second Step towards COVID Normal: pic.twitter.com/S1ARzY9R2M

— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) September 27, 2020