Geelong’s active COVID-19 cases have dropped to 16, less than a third of the city’s 50 active cases a week ago.
Greater Geelong had 16 active cases as of 11.59pm yesterday, three less than 19 on Saturday, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Colac Otway Shire recorded one new case yesterday, bringing its active cases to 25, according to the department.
DHHS has linked 16 active cases to an outbreak Bulla Dairy Foods in Colac
Surf Coast’s active cases remained stable on one while Gold Plains Shire currently has no active cases.
Regional Victoria averages 5.3 new cases a day over the past fortnight, slightly higher than the trigger point for a significant easing of restrictions.
Under the second step of state government’s ‘reopening roadmap’ coming into effect this Sunday, people will be able to gather outside home in groups of five.
The step also allows one nominated visitor for people living alone or single parents, and the reopening of schools and childcare.
But if regional Victoria has an average of five or less new cases a day with no unknown transmission for 14 days, it will enter step three of the roadmap.
Step three allows regional Victorian residents to have five visitors over, leave home without restriction and gather in public in groups of up to 10.
The step will also allow restaurants and other hospitality venues to reopen, predominantly with an outdoor seated service only.
Across the state new daily cases continued to drop yesterday amid Melbourne’s stage four lockdown.
Victoria recorded 41 new cases with five reclassified, largely due to duplication, increasing the total cases by 36 to 19,574.
Of the new cases 16 are linked to outbreaks or complex cases and 25 are under investigation.
Active cases dropped by 91 from 1872 on Saturday to 1781 as of 11.59pm yesterday.
Of the total active cases, 873 relate to aged care facilities, while 1651 reside in metropolitan Melbourne and 95 in regional Victoria.
Another nine Victorians have died after contracting coronavirus, including eight linked to aged care outbreaks, bringing the state’s death toll to 675.
The deaths include a woman in her 70s, three men and a woman aged in their 80s and three men and a woman aged in their 90s. Six of the deaths occurred prior to yesterday.
Currently 266 people are in hospital after contracting COVID-19 including 25 in intensive care, while 17,056 people have recovered.
A total of 2,403,388 test results have been received by DHHS so far.
