Melburnians will be able to travel to regional Victoria and gyms will reopen, if a plan to ease coronavirus restrictions goes ahead.
But an announcement from the Victorian government could depend on cases over the next day and whether it emerges the virus has spread at dozens of new exposure sites listed. Authorities are also concerned about a growing COVID cluster at a Melbourne CBD townhouse complex.
Cabinet ministers will hold a meeting on Wednesday morning about Victoria’s path to eased restrictions.
No formal announcements have been made but media reports suggest government leaders are poised to confirm significant changes.
Regional Victorians are set to enjoy further freedoms from Friday, while Melburnians move to more relaxed rules, two government sources told The Age.
City rules are likely to move closer into line with regional Victoria, where there is no 25 kilometre travel limit, people can have two visitors at home, gyms are open, and masks only need to be worn indoors.
The Herald Sun reports up to 20 people could be allowed to gather outdoors, instead of 10, and restrictions on community sports may also be lifted.
It’s likely there will no longer be any restrictions on movement between regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne.
In recent weeks, the Victorian government has made a habit of announcing whether regional Victoria and Melbourne would move to more relaxed rules on Wednesdays and incorporating the changes from 11.59pm on Thursdays.
Authorities still on alert
Between 7pm until 10pm on Tuesday, the Department of Health listed 32 new exposure sites across Melbourne.
That included a dozen venues in South Melbourne, six in the CBD, five in Southbank, four in Port Melbourne and four in Richmond.
Among them were a Bunnings, Officeworks, Woolworths and Kmart store, as well as the entire Victoria Gardens Shopping Centre.
The alerts came after two residents of the locked-down Kings Park Apartment Complex at Southbank tested positive earlier on Tuesday.
The cases will be included in Wednesday’s official COVID-19 figures, and brings the number of infected residents to six.
Authorities believe transmission between the two cases occurred in a common area of the complex, which is home to 200 residents.
COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said the men lived in separate apartments adjacent to those occupied by positive cases.
“Those two positive cases are connected to some communal areas that we are concerned about, thoroughfares within that particular complex,” he told reporters.
The low-rise complex, which consists of about 100 townhouses, has now been listed as a Tier 1 exposure site from June 2 to June 14.
As a result, all residents in the building have been asked to self-isolate for the next 14 days.
NSW COVID case in hotel quarantine investigated
A group of returned travellers who were discharged after quarantining at a NSW hotel have been urged to immediately isolate and get retested after multiple people on the same floor tested positive for COVID-19.
On Tuesday night, NSW Health announced it was investigating the source of a COVID-19 case who was diagnosed while quarantining at the Radisson Blu hotel.
The department said the source has an identical viral sequence to two cases staying in an adjacent room.
Tweet from @NSWHealth
“Out of an abundance of caution, all returned travellers who were on the same floor of the Radisson Blu hotel between June 1 and June 5 and were subsequently discharged are being contacted and asked to get tested and isolate at home pending further advice from NSW Health,” a NSW Health statement read.
All staff who worked on the fourth floor of the hotel between June 1 and June 5 have also been asked to get tested and isolate pending further advice.
The department said it was unclear how and where transmission occurred from a couple to another returned traveller who were all staying on the fourth floor of the Radisson Blu quarantine hotel.
Genomic sequencing has shown all three cases have identical viral sequences of the Alpha strain (B.1.1.7).
The couple, who were asymptomatic, tested positive to COVID-19 on a routine Day 2 test on June 3, NSW Health said in a statement.
The other returned traveller returned a negative Day 2 test on June 3 before subsequently developing symptoms and testing positive for COVID-19 following a test on June 5.
The three cases were transferred from the Radisson Blu to the Special Health Accommodation, where they remain.
All three cases arrived into Sydney on the same flight from Doha on June 1 and stayed in adjacent rooms in the quarantine hotel.
“Early possibilities as to where transmission may have occurred from the couple to the secondary case include on the flight, on transport from the airport to the hotel, in the lobby of the hotel, or while in quarantine,” a statement from the department read.
NSW Health said there was no evidence of further transmission.
-with AAP
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