Victorians can expect “favourable announcements” on lockdown restrictions tomorrow, providing the state’s coronavirus numbers remain low and no mystery cases are acquired.
However, he did not reveal what changes would follow at the end of the five-day snap lockdown.
“It is fair to say that with just two, contained additional community cases – this strategy is working,” Mr Andrews said.
“We are well placed to be able to make changes tomorrow, as I said yesterday I’m not in a position to definitively commit to that.
“The next 24 hours will, of course, be crucial.
“We will wait as long as we can to have as much data as possible to make that important judgement.”
It is not yet known if Victoria will return to the restrictions in place before lockdown, or if there will be a slow easing of measures.
“That will be based on public health advice, whether we can go back directly to the settings that were there on Thursday and Friday, or whether we have to ease back into it,” Mr Andrews said.
“If we see a continuation of these sorts of numbers, I’m certain the Chief Health Officer and I, and other colleagues, will be in a position to make favourable announcements tomorrow.”
The state recorded two new local cases of coronavirus overnight, both being primary household contacts linked to the private dining event in Coburg.
The new infections take the Holiday Inn cluster to 19 cases.
“They’ve been isolating, they’ve been at home, they’ve done the right thing,” Mr Andrews said.
“They’re not unexpected positives, although I will make it clear they did test negative some days ago.”
Mr Andrews said there were no further exposure sites as the cases had been isolating.
Victoria’s testing commander Jeroen Weimar said 70 primary close contacts had been identified from the woman – who worked across three mental health units at Melbourne hospitals – after she attended the Coburg party.
“There’s been a phenomenal piece of work done by the teams at Royal Melbourne and Alfred over the last 24 hours,” Mr Weimar said.
“We have not just tested those 70 individuals, but also a whole number of other people and their potential secondary contacts in and around the health units.”
Every person tested so far has returned a negative result.
There are about 100 close contacts linked to the two Glenroy kindergarten exposure sites, Glenroy Central Kinder and the Goodstart Early Learning Centre, with all returning negative test results so far.
“We have the pop-up site again active at Oak Park to make sure the remaining close contacts, about 20 people, also conclude testing,” Mr Weimar said.
There are 589 household and social primary close contacts linked to the Holiday Inn outbreak in self-isolation.
A total of 499 hotel quarantine staff and residents are also isolating.
While 1,189 primary close contacts have been linked to the exposure sites.
Mr Weimar said health authorities wanted “as comprehensive a view as possible” before deciding to lift lockdown measures.
“We’ve picked up two new positive cases today, but because they’re in our primary close contact network we’re not excessively concerned and that’s the pattern we want to see,” he said.
Anyone who visited the stores during the specified times must get tested and isolate for 14 days.
Shoppers who went to the west side of Broadmeadows Central shopping centre, including the fresh fruit and meat section, must monitor for symptoms.
This content first appear on 9news