Victoria's Covid cases spike, regions come out of lockdown
Victoria has recorded 20 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, as regional Victoria emerges from lockdown early.
Victoria's Department of Health said all the new cases were linked and five had been in quarantine for their infectious period.
There were 34,892 tests received in the previous 24 hours and 22,670 vaccine doses were also administered.
On Monday, Victoria reported 11 new Covid cases, over the weekend there were 40 cases identified — with 29 on Saturday, 11 on Sunday.
On Monday, Premier Daniel Andrews announced regional Victoria would come out of lockdown, as no new cases had been identified outside of Melbourne.
"We do have a conservative approach to these things we don't want this virus to spread out, but this is very positive news and speaks to the fact that we do have a degree of containment around these cases," he told reporters.
People in regional Victoria will have to follow the rules which were in place before being plunged into the state's sixth lockdown, with no restrictions on the reasons people can leave their home and hospitality, retail and schools all open.
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A number of restrictions will remain in place for the regions, including a ban on home visits and compulsory mask-wearing both indoors and outdoors.
Businesses that are open in regional Victoria but closed in Melbourne, such as restaurants and beauty salons, must check the IDs of customers.
Mr Andrews said it was too early to say whether Melbourne will be able to come out of lockdown on Thursday as planned.
He said he hopes to see a drop in the number of infectious people in the community.
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