Coronavirus restrictions to ease despite new lift in cases: deputy health chief
Monday's easing of coronavirus restrictions will go ahead as planned, despite another day of double-digit figures of positive cases in Victoria.
There are 13 new coronavirus cases reported across the state on Friday.
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Office Annaliese van Diemen conceded she would "rather have less cases than we have", but said Friday's figures were an approvement on Thursday.
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Annaliese van Diemen.Credit:Paul Jeffers
"Today's numbers are less concerning probably than yesterday's given the known links with these cases," she said.
"It's cases we don't have known links to that are the biggest concern".
Dr van Diemen said on Thursday the next stage in relaxing COVID-19 restrictions could be in jeopardy if new case numbers continued to rise in the next few days.
But on Friday she said plans to ease restrictions were going ahead as planned, even if there was a spike in cases over the weekend.
“Two days are not going to make a huge difference to be honest so the current plan is to go ahead,” she said.
Victoria has recorded 52 cases in the past three days, including eight people infected through untraceable community transmission whose cases emerged on Thursday.
One of the 13 new cases reported on Friday remains under investigation, four are from a cluster linked to the Stamford Plaza Hotel and one is a returned traveller in hotel quarantine. However, Victoria's total tally of cases only increased by 12 after a previous diagnosis was reclassified.
More to come