Health authorities are continuing to urge Victorians to be tested for COVID-19 as they assess which restrictions may be safe to lift later this week.
Key points:
- The Acting Premier says he expects restrictions will be able to be lifted later this week
- But authorities say higher testing rates would give them even more confidence ahead of making final decisions
- Contact tracers are getting closer to finding the source of a number of mystery cases
The Acting Premier and Chief Health Officer yesterday said the state was on track to moved to more relaxed settings, but cautioned it was as yet too early to say what that would entail.
After a record high of 57,517 test results processed on June 2, testing rates have been largely on the decline.
It follows trends seen during other outbreaks, where testing numbers peak when an outbreak begins and decline as the situation is brought under control.
Over the weekend, COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said his confidence in the testing numbers was waning after only about 15,000 test results were processed on Friday.
Health Minister Martin Foley praised Saturday's total of 17,102 but said he would still like to see the number higher.
More testing would allow authorities to have more confidence there was not still virus spreading undetected in the community.
"Mystery cases are a concern, they do relate to the fact that there are other cases out there that haven't been identified and therefore can't be chased down from a contact tracing point of view," Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said.
There are currently six mystery cases linked to the current outbreak.
Professor Sutton said there were "early signs of likely links" with some of the mystery cases. Contact tracers are reviewing CCTV footage, electronic data and triple-checking times and locations to establish whether cases in the outbreak are connected.
"But you know, it is not over yet, and certainly we want that high level of testing to be able to give that assurance about any other cases that might be out there," he said.
The two infections without any leads or known possible links are the link between the Wollert man who contacted COVID-19 in South Australia and the index case in the current outbreak, and the Arcare Maidstone aged care worker who caught the virus.
Professor Sutton said work was still underway to investigate how and where a Victorian couple who then travelled to Queensland through New South Wales caught COVID-19.
"We're reasonably confident about that acquisition," he said.
The couple were at the tail end of their illness when they tested positive in Queensland, meaning they were potentially infectious in both Victoria and NSW.
'Don't assume it's not COVID'
In announcing a slight easing of restrictions last week, Acting Premier James Merlino said the next step would likely be taken from 11:59pm on Thursday, June 17.
He yesterday said he expected to be able to make an announcement later in the week.
Authorities have repeated the familiar refrain of the assessment being made on a day-by-day basis, but on Sunday expressed optimism about the week ahead.
It is expected the next steps will be gradual, rather than a swift return to the COVID-normal settings in place in May.
Epidemiologists have criticised some of the restrictions still in place, such as masks being mandatory outdoors and the 25-kilometre radius in place around Melburnian homes.
Professor Sutton said testing rates would not be the "be-all and end-all" in deciding which restrictions were safest to lift next.
But he cautioned that during the cold Melbourne winter there would be lots of coughs and cold-like symptoms about.
"People have been surprised by their own positive results because they hadn't been identified as a primary close contact, didn't regard themselves at risk, didn't regard themselves as having gone to an exposure site, but nonetheless, ended up with COVID.
"Nobody wants to have inadvertently put others at risk because they've had COVID and not had that diagnosis."
Hundreds of close contacts who have been in quarantine after being potentially exposed to the virus have continued to be released as they reach the end of their 14-day quarantine period.
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2021-06-13 20:12:28Z
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