Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that Victoria is “well placed to take significant steps” on Sunday after the state recorded just two new cases of COVID and zero deaths.
With the news that the state marked their lowest daily case tally since June 8th – bringing Melbourne’s 14-day following average down to 8.7 – Andrews told media that “we can be optimistic” in seeing restrictions eased.
“Today is a day where we can be optimistic and we can be positive. Because we as a state have been as stubborn as this virus in our resolve to beat it, we are well placed to take significant steps on Sunday.”
Andrews continued: “It will not be everything that everyone wants because it’s not safe to take all of those steps that were outlined in stage three.
“But on Sunday, I very much look forward to giving people a sense of what the coming weeks look like and it’s fair to say, that if these numbers continue, we are very well placed to be broadly in alignment with our foreshadowed stage three.”
Andrews praised Victorians, saying they feel proud for decreasing the state’s caseload so dramatically over recent weeks.
“We have stayed the course, we have not let our frustration get the better of us. We have made a conscious decision to defeat this second wave and we have found that in ourselves to deal with the pain and the challenges of lockdown…
“This is no small thing,” Andrews added.
While Andrews added that the state would be “well-placed to make some significant announcements on Sunday” he said wouldn’t make a final decision on the easing of restrictions until Saturday evening.
However, epidemiologist Catherine Bennett of Deakin University said Victorians would have every reason to expect a significant easing of restrictions on Sunday.
“The numbers have been really good, the last few days have been single digits, but most importantly they have been cases that they’ve known about and in isolation already,” Professor Bennett said.
“I’d like to see a lot of step three happen, there might be some compromises around having people in your home that might have to wait a week or two just because we’ve still got these last cases that we’re seeing linked to these outbreaks.”
