Coronavirus: Regional Victoria in line for lockdown reprieve

Regional Victoria is on track to be released from stay-at-home ­restrictions as soon as Wednesday.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton in Melbourne on Monday. Picture: Getty Images

Regional Victoria is on track to be released from stay-at-home ­restrictions as soon as Wednesday, along with a reopening of hospitality businesses and retail, exacerbating the divide between Melbourne and the rest of the state.

Premier Daniel Andrews signalled police enforcement of roadblocks around Melbourne’s perimeter would be bolstered, as Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton indicated that, pending no cases with an unknown source in the next 24 hours, ­regional Victoria would qualify for a relaxation of restrictions.

In order for the regions to be released from stay-at-home ­restrictions and hospitality businesses to open for up to 10 patrons, the regional Victorian 14-day daily average of new coronavirus cases needs to be below five, with no cases with an unknown source over that period.

As of Monday, regional Victoria had 47 active cases of coronavirus, down from 52 on Sunday, with no new cases and a 14-day daily average of 3.9 cases.

There had been three cases where contact tracers had been unable to identify a source of infection in the previous fortnight.

Professor Sutton said regional Victoria was likely to reach the reopening threshold on Tuesday, given the unknown source cases were from positive results ­received almost a fortnight ago.

“At the moment that 14-day period includes three mystery cases, but they will drop off as that 14-day period moves into tomorrow,” Professor Sutton said.

Mr Andrews foreshadowed an announcement on Tuesday about a reopening of regional Victoria. “We’ll be here tomorrow, and hopefully we’ve had no mystery cases in the data I report ­tomorrow, and hopefully we can have more to say,” he said on Monday. “Because you’ve got to hit the target before you can make the decision, there won’t be a lot of notice, but I think that’s preferable than making people wait for another week or so.

“Hopefully we can have some very, very good news for regional Victoria tomorrow, but that is subject to the numbers that come in today.

“We’ll have much more to say in coming days about … Victoria Police efforts to make sure that the border between Melbourne and regional Victoria is as hard as it can possibly be.”

Regional Victoria’s numbers compare to a 14-day daily average of 56.9 new cases in Melbourne, with 94 cases with no identified source over the past fortnight.

Melbourne needs to reach the same threshold of a 14-day daily average below five, and no unknown source cases for a fortnight, on or after October 26, before Melburnians can be ­released from stay-at-home and curfew restrictions.

Monday’s 35 new cases for Victoria represented the state’s lowest daily increase since June 26, while seven more deaths took Victoria’s coronavirus death toll to 729 — all but 19 of which have occurred as a result of a second wave of infections linked to breaches in the Andrews government’s hotel quarantine program.

The reprieve for regional Victoria comes as state parliament is set to resume on Tuesday, following extensive cleaning after a ­security guard tested positive for coronavirus last week.

On the agenda will be a government bill extending some existing COVID measures, but also introducing temporary measures which will remain for at least six months, such as broadening the types of people who can be ­appointed authorised officers to enforce public health interventions, and clarifying powers to ensure people who test positive comply with stay-at-home rules.