According to the Department of Health, Victoria has only one active coronavirus case remaining in the state, recording 23 consecutive days of no community transmission after processing 12,388 test results received on Saturday.
The person infected reportedly arrived in Victoria from overseas. At the same time, the state has not accepted international passenger flights since 13 February.
Freight flights with crew are still able to land but isolation rules are stricter as as Australia prepares for the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to GPs.
As of Monday, six million people in the 1B priority vaccination group will start receiving the jab; a mission expected to be completed in three months. The 1B group includes people aged 70 or over, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders over 55, younger adults with underlying medical conditions or disabilities, healthcare workers and other emergency service workers including those in defence, police, fire, emergency services and meat processing will be offered a shot.
The initial vaccine rollout, phase 1A, targeting quarantine workers, front-line health workers and aged and disability care staff has been completed successfully.
Victoria exceeded its projected vaccinations target for Covid-19, administering almost a third more doses in the first month of the rollout than originally forecast since the program began on 22 February.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said the rollout’s second phase would begin “slow and steady” as mass vaccination centres began servicing emergency service workers at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and Royal Exhibition Building.
“This coming week we’re gradually standing up more high-volume vaccination centres to deliver the vaccine to critical worker groups allocated to us by the commonwealth in the next phase of their program,” Mr Foley said as 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be available to the general public next week.
“We’ll be starting slow and steady at these high-volume sites, conducting dry runs over the first few days and ensuring all the systems and processes are safely in place — because that’s what matters most.”
A further release of