Victoria reported 55 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday as well as eight further deaths overnight, with the state’s COVID-19 death toll now at 683.
Six of the eight deaths were linked to aged care settings, and included two men in their 60s, two men in their 80s, and one woman and three men in their 90s.
There were no new cases recorded in regional Victoria, however Premier Daniel Andrews urged Victorians to continue getting tested if they have symptoms.
There were 8,700 coronavirus tests processed across Victoria yesterday.
Premier Andrews has issued a “roadmap” to help Victorians ease out of restrictions as the city needs to record a 14-day daily average below 50 cases in order to progress to the second step on 28 September.
Asked about whether regional Victoria would exit from restrictions sooner than Melbourne given the lower numbers with no transmissions overnight. Premier Andrews said, “The trend is very good and we’re very proud and very grateful to everyone in regional Victoria who is doing the right thing. I know those rules are not easy.”
READ MORE: Looking to survive: COVID-19 road map too strict and police patrols too many, say traders
He added however that caution needs to be exerted. “Let’s not make announcements until we’ve got the data. We will ease in regional Victoria based on the data and science and take as big a step as we can provided it is safe. We didn’t put a timeline some of that,” he said.
Asked to compare Victoria to NSW, Mr Andrews said Victoria’s higher number of “mystery” community transmission did not allow for that.