Promising case news as Melbourne lockdown easing expected
Victoria has recorded just one new locally acquired Covid-19 case on Wednesday as Melburnians brace for a decision on which restrictions of the city's two-week lockdown will ease.
Greater Melbourne is expected to have its 10km travel restriction extended to 25km while outdoor gatherings are set to rise to 10 people, the Herald Sun understands.
The Department of Health said the case is linked to existing outbreaks and has been quarantining during their infectious period.
The state has now recorded 86 cases since the outbreak began on May 24, including 15 cases as part of the highly-infectious Delta variant cluster.
Wednesday's case total is the lowest of the outbreak. There were 28,485 tests performed in the previous 24 hours.
On Tuesday, Acting Premier James Merlino said Melbourne was on track to ease restrictions at the end of its second week of lockdown come midnight Thursday.
While the state recorded an alarming 11 community cases on Monday, Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said it was reassuring the majority of recent cases were linked and people already identified as contacts.
Regional Victoria to remain off limits
A final decision on eased restrictions for Melbourne and regional Victoria is expected to be finalised on Wednesday morning.
Mr Merlino said on Tuesday Melbourne residents would not be allowed to travel into regional Victoria as part of the planned easing heading into the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
"It remains the public health advice that for a period of time we will have different settings between regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne," Mr Merlino told reporters on Tuesday.
"That will extend beyond any announcements that we will make later in the week."
He also revealed genomic testing matched the Delta cases with a returned traveller however how it spread into the community remains a mystery.
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