Premier set to unveil COVID-19 road map out of lockdown on Sunday

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he will reveal a road map out of lockdown on Sunday, but has not disclosed details, saying the COVID-19 case numbers for the coming week were "critically important".

Victoria has recorded 73 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and 41 deaths, with the spike in fatalities attributed to delayed reporting of at least 22 deaths in aged care.

While Mr Andrews said it was too early to "settle that road map" for restrictions to lift, he hinted it would begin with an outlook for industry and that health authorities would analyse data throughout the week.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said that by the time the plan was revealed on Sunday, he hoped the infection rate would fall to about 40 new cases per day.

The Premier said: "Another week's data is critically important to make sure that the strategy continues to work and for us to have a better sense of how long it will take to drive these numbers down to very, very low numbers so that they can be contained uncontrolled without the need to put restrictions back on over not just weeks and months."

"That is the aim, and that is what the strategy is working towards."

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the deaths confirmed on Monday include people who died in the weeks leading up to August 27 but were reported to the department by aged care facilities on Sunday.

It is the highest number of deaths published by the department on a single day.

There have been revisions made to the state's total coronavirus death toll in the past (for example, earlier this month one death had previously been counted twice by mistake), but this is the first time the state's death toll from coronavirus has been revised up to such an extent.

The deaths include three men and four women in their 70s, seven men and 10 women in their 80s, three men and 13 women in their 90s and one woman over 100. At least 37 of the newly published deaths are linked to aged care outbreaks.

Higher number of deaths due to reporting inconsistencies

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the backlog of aged care deaths belatedly reported on Monday was due to amended reporting obligations and inconsistencies between state and federal reporting methods.

Despite the deaths, Professor Sutton said the lower daily caseload was "good news" and consistent with the government’s modelling, which he said showed the state was on a "good track".

He said some of the 41 deaths reported on Monday – 33 of which did not occur in the past 24 hours – happened as far back as late July.

Some aged care homes may still need to report a few historical deaths, but Professor Sutton said he did not expect "anywhere near" the same numbers reported on Monday.

"All of these deaths have been known to the facility. They've of course been known to the families of those residents," he said. "It is heartbreaking to see a number of that magnitude … It is a reflection of just how vulnerable those populations are."

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton on Monday.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Premier to reveal plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions

Mr Andrews said there was no economic benefit to pushing a plan ''too fast'' and then being forced back into restrictions.

"But there is an enormous amount of work going on, modelling scenarios being run through various supercomputers ... and we will be in a position to be able to share that road map, what it will look like, its various components and phases, with the community on Sunday," he said.

"It cannot be 100 per cent certain, because everything must be based on case numbers.

"I am deeply, deeply grateful to every single Victorian who is staying the course, who is making their own personal contribution to a strategy that is defeating this virus. We will defeat this second wave."

The 'strategy is working': Premier

There have been 565 deaths in the state and there are about 2600 active cases in Victoria, a drop of about 300 from Sunday.

About 14,000 tests were recorded in the past 24 hours and 112 cases have been added to the total of those with no known source of infection.

There are now 453 people with COVID-19 in Victorian hospitals, 19 fewer than on Sunday, including 21 in intensive care.

Mr Andrews said "the strategy is working" and he was "very pleased" with the downward trend.

He said people needed to continue to be tested whenever they experienced symptoms. "Please come forward and get tested even if you've got the milder symptoms."

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