Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has just announced the lift of lockdown from Friday as Victoria records 1,838 new COVID-19 cases and seven deaths.

The new cases were detected from 73,501 tests and bring the total number of active cases to 23,376.

Mr Andrews said that even though Victoria is seeing more cases than ever before, there are less hospitalisations, making the government confident to start opening up ahead of the previous roadmap.

At the moment, there are 777 people in hospital, down from 788 people the previous day. Mr Andrews added that 151 are in intensive care and 94 are on a ventilator (also lower than yesterday).

More specifically, as of Thursday midnight the curfew will lift and there will be no restrictions on leaving your home as well as no travel limit within metropolitan Melbourne, however, people in Melbourne will still be unable to visit regional Victoria for the next 10 days.

More changes to the roadmap:

  • Up to 20 people allowed inside at hospitality venues, as well as 50 outside (still subject to density limits)
  • Victorians will be able to have 10 visitors, including dependents, at home per day
  • Mask wearing remains unchanged until Victoria reaches 80 per cent

Victoria’s Premier posted on Twitter:

Health Chief Officer Prof Brett Sutton, urged everyone that has not yet been vaccinated or fully vaccinated to book their appointment and help Victoria be a global leader in their vaccination efforts, reaching the desired 80 and even 95 per cent.

“In terms of vaccination, we have had a huge uptick in vaccination. We have gone from zero to 35 per cent coverage in over 150 days and then from 35 per cent to 70 ;per cent mark is going to happen in much, much less than that. It is really extraordinary how we’re shooting up the global rankings in terms of our vaccination coverage. It will make a huge difference to the size and complexity of our break.”

More to come…