Melbourne’s extended lockdown is slated to end on Thursday at 11.59pm with government officials previously suggesting the city is on track to ease restrictions.
Acting Premier James Merlino earlier said the decision to ease restrictions would be based on public health advice and how the state’s coronavirus landscape evolves over the next few days.
He said he expects restrictions to ease on Friday.
“My expectation is that by the end of this period we’ll be in a position to have a further easing of restrictions,” he said.
Lockdown restrictions are set to remain in place until Thursday night, with Deputy Chief Health Officer Professor Allen Cheng explaining the relaxing of measures would be a “day-by-day proposition”.
“We don’t want to be in this any longer than we need to,” he said.
“If we can, we will lift it early – but at this stage, our expectation is that it will continue to Thursday.”
Following the announcement of the extended lockdown, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said he had “great confidence” the restrictions could ease as planned after the extra week.
Professor Sutton today said the situation was being monitored daily.
“As I’ve always said, we’re looking at numbers every day, we make those decisions on a day-by-day basis,” he said.
Professor Sutton said he was not “particularly worried” about Melbourne opening up in time for the upcoming long weekend.
“The long weekend should have the same messages for everyone,” he said.
“It is certainly not a snap back to large gatherings and a full MCG. People need to consider all of those key messages around isolating if they have symptoms and getting tested.”
Professor Sutton could not confirm how an eased lockdown would look ahead of the Queen’s Birthday weekend.
“It’s not something I can speak to now. It’s early days still,” he said.
“It’s frustrating. People want to know what things will look like three days from now.
“We see different changes every day and there can be something from left field. There can be something very assuring in terms of new linkages, new understanding, no wastewater detections or no new exposure sites – we need to see it play out.”
There are three outbreaks with unknown sources, including Whittlesea, Arcare Aged Care and the Delta variant cluster linked to West Melbourne.
Professor Cheng said health officials would become less concerned about finding the unknown sources after the 14-day incubation period of the virus.
Before case numbers were announced today, Professor Sharon Lewin from the Peter Doherty Institute said she was “pretty optimistic” restrictions would ease.
“In the end, it will be a decision for the authorities, but the signs are good,” she told Today.
“We’re not identifying new chains of transmission.
“Most of the new infections that have been identified over the weekend were related to people that are already in quarantine or had a connection with where a positive case had been.”
Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid warned the mystery Delta outbreak could be the obstacle that prevents lockdown easing.
“That is probably the only thing that would stop this lockdown starting to ease at the end of the two-week period,” he said.
