Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said the data shows their processes in quelling the virus are stopping the spread - despite an increase in case numbers today.
“Two days ago, there was only 6 per cent of our daily cases were fully isolating in quarantine. Today it is 73 per cent have been fully isolated during their period of infectivity,” he said.
“What this means is that our contact tracers and our restrictions are working in tandem as part of the public health team's tool kit to beat this virus back and to beat this outbreak back, step-by-step.”
The state recorded 22 locally transmitted cases from a record-breaking 60,000 tests in the latest reporting period.
Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton did warn that a rise in cases is expected due to household transmission.
Follow our live blog below.
Updates
The Prime Minister said that he 'could not be clearer' on vaccine advice.
The Federal Government had come under fire for confusing messages around who should take the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Mr Morrison said his government had made it plain Australians should follow medical advice.
"But I could not be more clearer, I think, that every Australian above the age for which vaccines are available should be having those discussions with their doctors," he said.
"We know that in other countries, the AstraZeneca vaccine, particularly the UK, has been the primary vaccine through which they've been able to achieve the vaccination levels there."
Prime Minister Morrison said a million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the last week.
"We were in the 700 thousand and the 800 thousand. And now in Australia, we've got to a million a week," he said.
"In the same week, we've seen a million doses of Pfizer turn up and we've gone from 300,000 doses as week escalating to a million doses coming every week with Pfizer."
The Prime Minister believes at least 30,000 lives have been saved through the government's Covid-19 response.
Speaking in Canberra, Prime Minister Morrison reiterated the quality of country's Covid response.
"It's tough and it will be tough in the weeks ahead as we continue to wrestle with the new strain of the virus and we adapt our responses to fight it," he said
"Just as we have with every other episode that we've gone through as we've responded to the coronavirus pandemic all around the world."
Residents in the Phillip Island, San Remo and Bass Coast areas are being urged to get tested for Covid-19 after more traces of the virus were detected in the region’s sewage.
It’s the second day in a row health authorities have picked up traces of coronavirus in the region’s wastewater 140km from Melbourne’s CBD, sparking concerns there could “undetected cases” in the tourist hot spot.
“A couple of days in a row of testing when the cases associated with Philip Island, to the best of our knowledge, have returned to metropolitan Melbourne, makes us concerned that perhaps there are undetected cases in the Philip Island and San Remo communities,” Health Minister Martin Foley said.
Retired Australian boxing great Anthony Mundine has been fined for breaching Covid protocols for the second time within weeks.
Mundine allegedly entered a Bunnings store in Kingsgrove, Sydney, on Tuesday afternoon without a mask before claiming he had an exemption when a store member asked him to wear one.
He then allegedly refused to scan the QR code at the store entrance.
Police said he purchased something and left a short time later.
Detectives attached to Campsie Police Area Command launched an investigation on Tuesday night after they were called to the Bunnings store.
Officers then visited a home in South Hurstville where they spoke to Mundine before issuing him another $1000 fine for breaking Covid rules.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton believes the number of daily Covid-19 could rise again.
The amount of locally transmitted cases peaked today with 22 recorded. This is the most daily cases recorded in this outbreak.
Prof Sutton said he does not expect the number of infectious cases in the community to continue to rise.
“I don't know that we peaked in terms of new cases that are emerging. There are the household contacts. We encourage people to quarantine on their own for that very reason,” he said.
“We don’t want to put family members at risk but there are people with parental responsibilities and they don't want to give up on those.”
The Victorian government has not done any modelling on how bad the outbreak could have been if they had not locked down, but estimates it would be in the hundreds.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Brett Sutton said the variant spreads extremely easily.
"it is a variant that takes off from dozens to thousands of cases within just a matter of weeks. I suspect that we would be at 200 or 300 at this point in time. But if we locked down today instead of when we did, we would get thousands of cases over the next couple weeks," he said.
There are five people in hospital with Covid-19. One of these cases is in ICU.
The person is ICU has come from the Barwon health region.
Trinity Grammar – five cases. This includes one staff member, two students and two additional household members.
Ms Frankies – five cases. This includes two staff and one patron who visited on the 15th, and two subsequent household contacts.
Young and Jacksons – three cases. All links are positive to a case at the pub.
St Patricks, Murrumbeena – three cases. Two are students and one a household contact.
AAMI Park – two cases. Both cases are linked to a patron two-to-three rows near them.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar – two cases. Both household contacts of previous cases.
West Gate tunnel – one case. There is one worker who was a close contact.
Coolaroo cluster – one case. This person was a close contact of yesterday’s unknown case. Health authorities have now linked both of these to the Coolaroo cluster.
The Victorian Government believes the lockdown, and its extension, is working against the Delta variant.
Health Minister Martin Foley said data showed the shutdown was effective.
“Two days ago, there was only 6 per cent of our daily cases were fully isolating in quarantine. Today it is 73 per cent have been fully isolated during their period of infectivity,” he said.
“What this means is that our contact tracers and our restrictions are working in tandem as part of the public health team's tool kit to beat this virus back and to beat this outbreak back, step-by-step.”
