Regional Victoria cleared of coronavirus

The two lingering cases in Shepparton have recovered.

Victoria has recorded two new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, which are close contacts of known cases linked to the northern metropolitan region community outbreak.

They are linked to the Regis Macleod aged care facility and East Preston Islamic College.

Both were in quarantine and at home and pose no risk to public health, says Premier Daniel Andrews.

80 cases are currently active in Victoria.

One case was reclassified which was a false positive.

Two further Victorians have passed away, one male in his 70s and one male in his 80s.

Both deaths are historic cases that have now been linked to COVID-19. One death occurred on September 6 and the other was on October 7. Both are also linked to aged care outbreaks. To date, 819 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.

There are three Victorians in hospital due to coronavirus in hospital and none of them are in intensive care.

There have been 24,673 test results processed since yesterday.

There are six healthcare workers who are active cases.

The rolling average to October 27 is metro, 2.7, and regional Victoria, zero.

There are now just three mystery cases and they are in metropolitan Melbourne.

There are now just three active cases in residential aged care.

Around 80,000 workers have returned to work on site across Victoria today as the city moved to Step Three of the roadmap.

"I want to remind everyone that the rules still apply and the rules, not against you, they are for you," Mr Andrews said.

"They are so you can continue to do these things. That is what the rules are there for and we can keep going opening up further in making announcements on November 8 and beyond and have the Christmas we are longing for where we can be close to the people we have missed the most."

Victoria's Commander of Testing and Community Engagement Jeroen Weimar implored people to continue to get tested if they have symptoms.

He saidover 208,000 Victorians have come forward to get tested across over the last two weeks, including 46,810 regional Victorians.

Total testing is 12 per cent up on the previous fortnight.

For every positive case in regional Victoria in the last two weeks, which have only been three, 5951 tests have been done. Within the metro areas, it is about 1500 tests for every positive case.

"But every negative test result tells us something more. It tells us where the virus isn't, and gives us a good understanding of who is coming forward, the geographic spread, and where we need to keep searching to detect and control the virus," Mr Weimar said.

"The focus is to make sure we keep people coming up. As the premier indicated, if you feel you are not well, the slightest symptoms, if you get tested today, you will have your result tomorrow.

"You won't be waiting for days on end, you will have a result tomorrow so you can plan ahead.

"So please don't delay, get tested, we will support you if you are positive, we will support you if you are close contact."

The premier said changes won't be further brought forward despite regional Victoria now being cleared of the virus.

"It is important to not lose sight of the fact we have made significant changes there, they are a few weeks ahead of Melbourne," Mr Andrews said.

"We don't want a situation where Melbourne and regional Victoria is so far apart we cannot open up.

"The best thing to do, is we see out this next couple of weeks, everyone plays a part to keep numbers low despite the fact we are open.

"We then bring down the 25 kilometre and regional-metro border on the eighth and if there is another step, we can take that step at the same time.

"That is preferable than having different roles in different parts of the state because what that means you have to keep the border on for longer, which I don't think any tourism business wants.

"It's about personal issues as well, the ability to go and see people that you haven't seen for a long time."

READ MORE:

Our COVID-19 news articles relating to public health and safety are free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.