By Luke Voogt
Geelong’s active COVID-19 cases have continued to fall with no new cases confirmed in the city yesterday.
Greater Geelong had 335 cases since the pandemic began as of midnight yesterday, the same as the previous day, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
But active cases dropped from 118 to 115 during the same 24 hours.
A total of 31 Opal residents, including six who have died, and 18 staff have tested positive for COVID-19.
Colac Otway Shire had 12 active cases as of midnight yesterday, three less than the previous day.
Surf Coast Shire’s active cases remained on four while Golden Plains Shire has just a single active case.
The department has so far linked 83 cases to an outbreak at Colac’s Australian Lamb Company abattoir and 55 to an outbreak at Golden Farms Poultry in Breakwater.
Victoria recorded 179 new COVID-19 cases with 10 reclassified, largely due to duplication, increasing the total by 169 to 17,852.
Active cases across Victoria declined by 443, from 4864 to 4421.
The decrease follows a significant decline this week which the department yesterday attributed to “cases cleared over the past five days, supported by additional capacity”.
“This coincides with a high number of cases in the past two to three weeks who are starting to recover,” the department said in a statement.
“The public health team anticipate that if the current trend of slower growth in new cases continues, then the active case number will continue to decline rapidly.”
Another nine Victorians, including seven aged-care residents, have died from COVID-19 bringing the state’s death toll to 385.
The deaths included a man in his 60s, a woman in her 70s, two women in their 80s, two men in their 80s, a woman in her 90s, a man in his 90s and a man in his 100s.
Of the new cases, 42 are linked to outbreaks or complex cases, and 137 are under investigation.
Of total cases, 3808 indicate unknown transmission.
Currently 626 Victorians are in hospital after contracting COVID-19 with 40 in intensive care, while 12,940 people have recovered.
Of the total cases, 16,426 are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 1081 are from regional Victoria.
More than 2,049,235 tests have been processed to date.
