Chief Minister says if progress continues regional Victorians will soon be allowed in the NT

CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has announced the hotspot declaration on most of regional Victoria will be soon lifted if the area continues to make progress

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THE HOTSPOT declaration on most of regional Victoria will be removed in four weeks if it continues to make positive coronavirus progress.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced given the effort made by regional Victoria, plans will begin to lift the declaration in four weeks.

“Today we can confirm that we are now happy enough with the progress made in regional Victoria to flag a future change in their hotspot status,” he said.

“Provided things keep progressing the way they are from Monday the second of November, most of regional Victoria will no longer be a hotspot for the purposes of travel to the Northern Territory.

“Right now, we will plan to remove the hotspot declaration in four weeks time for all Victorian local government areas outside of Metropolitan Melbourne, with the exception of greater Geelong, Macedon Ranges, Mitchell Shire, and the East Gippsland Shire.

“We’re holding back on these four areas for now given they’ve had a confirmed case in the past fortnight, just so that our team can investigate them a little further and be totally sure there is no further community transmission from these cases.

“Once we are sure of that, we can be in a position to add these areas to the list of hot spots removed in four weeks, that’s likely to happen, but it’s not something we are confirming today.”

However, Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Charles Pain warned that with the opening of the borders to more parts of the country, Territorians will need to be more vigilant, including the wearing of masks.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Charles Pain has urged Territorians to stay vigilant. Picture: KERI MEGELUS

“What we want people to do is we want them to have a mask, that’s the first thing, And the second thing is if they can’t keep their physical distance at one and a half metres, for example, in a supermarket … have your mask and put it on,” Dr Pain said.

“We would actually like to encourage that behaviour, it gets us ready fore the next possible phase of this if there is an outbreak.

Dr Pain also flagged the potential for stricter social distancing measures in Territory pubs and clubs after events like the crowded Rebound festival on the weekend.

“I have to say we are watching that closely and concerned about it. We’re working with partners in the in the industry, pubs and clubs and so on,” he said.

On July 17 the Territory shut its doors completely to Victoria given the rapidly escalating coronavirus outbreak at the time. Anyone from Victoria who entered the NT from July 17 onwards was put into mandatory supervised quarantine.

It comes as the hot spot declaration on greater Sydney is set to be lifted this Friday.

Mr Gunner praised the efforts of regional Victorians for taking control of the virus.

“Almost all of regional Victoria has not seen any confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past fortnight” Mr Gunner said.

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“There are currently just three active cases in all of regional Victoria there have been zero cases from an unknown source and regional Victoria in the past fortnight

“All numbers basically amount to this regional Victoria has crushed the coronavirus, the critical factor for making this decision is regional Victoria’s success in easing their restrictions, without spreading the virus.”

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Originally published as Chief Minister says if progress continues regional Victorians will soon be allowed in the NT