Victoria records 303 new virus cases and four deaths

Victoria’s COVID-19 death toll has dropped to one of its lowest levels in weeks, as stage 4 restrictions start to work.

Victoria has recorded another 303 new cases of coronavirus and one of its lowest death tolls in weeks as stage 4 restrictions start to reduce the impact of the state’s second wave.

Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed four elderly people had died in the 24 hours to Saturday.

One woman in her 80s, two men in their 80s and another woman in her 90s were the latest to succumb to the virus.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said geolocation data from Facebook and Google showed Victorians’ movements were at their lowest levels since April, when COVID-19 was under control.

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“It’s substantially down 90 per cent in the CBD and more than 60 per cent across Melbourne,” he said.

Movement in the CBD is down 90 per cent and has dropped by 60 per cent across Melbourne, chief health officer Brett Sutton said. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Less than a day after he said Victoria had turned a corner in controlling the devastating second wave, Professor Sutton said it appeared there had been a “stabilisation” of the state’s numbers.

“People should have hope and confidence that the things that we know work are now manifesting in our daily contents (numbers),” he said.

“Our new outbreaks every day are in single figures now. At one point in time there were 20 or 30 new outbreaks every day. We are at four or five now each day. Which is another positive sign.”

But Prof Sutton said some people were still going out after they developed symptoms.

“It doesn’t matter how mild those symptoms are – cough and cold symptoms, runny nose, sore throat, headache, fever, the beginnings of a cough – they are all signs of coronavirus,” he said.

“One of the critical things is isolating from the workplace, isolating from those settings where you can spread it to a great number of people. That’s a really key intervention.”

Another four Victorians have died as the state recorded 303 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Concerns are growing about the spread of COVID-19 in other parts of Victoria after Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo all recorded new infections.

Mr Andrews urged residents living in those towns and other regional areas to come forward for testing, even if they had mild symptoms.

“We have put extra staff on, we have more than 180 sites across the state,” he said.

“We have got to remain vigilant on that front, particularly in those big regional centres where numbers are low but we have seen some increases in the last fortnight.”

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There are now 7875 active COVID-19 cases across Victoria. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Mr Andrews also confirmed there were now 3383 mystery cases in Victoria, up 264 from Friday.

“Before people see that as a very big increase on previous days we have always made the point or at least tried to, that coronavirus detective work it‘s not all done in one hit,” he said.

“It does take time to try and work out, try and exhaust all possible sources and then to declare that case a mystery case. They do come in batches if you like, so I wouldn‘t read too much into that.”

The virus continues to plague the aged care sector, with the premier confirming there now 2938 active cases in aged-care settings.

Public hospital nurses and health care workers have all but taken over several aged care homes as they continue to grapple with the deadly disease.

There are now 7875 active COVID-19 cases across Victoria, of which 661 people are in hospital and 41 of those are in intensive care.

The state has conducted almost two million tests.