Victoria has continued its run of no new COVID-19 cases or deaths for the 17th day in a row, however there are still three active cases in the state and there were 6,695 tests processed over the past day.
Victoria’s 17th day in a row of no new cases or deaths related to COVID-19 comes the same day as a Victorian Upper House committee inquiry into the state’s contact tracing begins.
Victoria’s Premier Dan Andrews is adamant that masks are still a necessity but there may be possible tweaks to this rule as Victoria prepares to further ease restrictions next Sunday.
“The area we will move first will be when people are out on their own or are well away from others,” he said.
“It will always be a situation where you carry the mask and if for some unexpected reason you would come into contact with others, you would wear that mask.”
READ MORE: What are the new COVID-19 freedoms for Victorians?
NSW will reopen its border with Victoria next Monday before South Australia follows suit on 1 December. However, a South Australian cluster has grown to 17 after the state recorded its first locally-acquired case in almost three months on Sunday when a woman in her 80s tested positive. Two family members were also part of the initial cluster, including a man in his 60s who works in hotel quarantine for returning travellers, which SA Health believes is the source of the outbreak.
South Australian Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier confirmed on Monday morning that the number of cases linked to the cluster had risen from four.
Chief Scientist Alan Finkel said he was confident South Australia would to stay on top of its new cluster.
“I think this [outbreak] should be seen as an aberration, but aberrations are inevitable,” he told the ABC on Monday.
“That’s why you need a second line of defence which is really fast testing, contact tracing and outbreak management and South Australia’s well prepared for this, they’ve done desktop simulations in the last few months, but this is a real world test for them.”
