Below 50 coronavirus cases the goal in Victoria for lockdown deadline

Victoria records 182 new cases and 13 more deaths, as state’s Chief Health Officer reveals ambitious lockdown target.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton in Melbourne on Friday. Picture: David Geraghty

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer says he hopes the state has daily case numbers below 50 by September 13, when stage-four ­restrictions are due to ease, and would be “very relaxed” if they have dropped to single figures.

According to the latest figures, Victoria has recorded another 182 cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths in the 24 hours to Saturday morning.

Brett Sutton’s comments came as the state on Friday ­recorded its lowest daily increase in coronavirus cases since July 13, with 179, down from a peak of 725 on August 5.

Nine deaths in the 24 hours to Friday took the state’s death toll from the virus to 385 — all but 20 of which have occurred since July 4.

While Premier Daniel ­Andrews said it was too early to discuss lifting restrictions, Professor Sutton nominated daily case numbers of less than 50 as a goal by September 13.

“I’d love us to be below 50. I would be really gratified if it were in single figures, but I’m not convinced that it will be,” Professor Sutton said.

“I think it’s possible, but I think there are really significant challenges to get there.”

Professor Sutton warned that further reductions in transmission might become more difficult if the virus continued to spread in settings such as health and aged care where restrictions have limited impact.

“The challenge of the next couple of weeks is that even as community transmission goes down, those complex outbreak settings that are really hard to get on top of transmission in the aged care disability sector, even in our health services — they might end up with a baseline level of transmission that is harder to shift,” he said.

Victoria’s total number of ­active coronavirus cases fell by 443 on Friday as the number of people recovering from the virus greatly exceeded the number of new cases. The total number of active cases in the state is now 4421, down from a peak of 7880 on August 11. This includes 4022 active cases in metropolitan Melbourne and 269 in regional areas.