THE state government has doubled down on its restrictions after the two suspected "fleeting" transmission cases of coronavirus used to justify Melbourne's lockdown extension were declared false positives.
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It comes as regional Victoria begins its first full day of eased restrictions today, including students returning to school, the reopening of retail and beauty services and outdoor gatherings.
Some restrictions remain in place, including mask-wearing indoors and no visitors to the home.
Acting Premier James Merlino said on Friday morning there were still a high number of cases in the state, "many of them some concern to public health."
"You've got more than 5000 primary close contacts, hundreds of exposure sites, a number of cases, of which a number of those are particularly concerning to public health," he said.
"The advice from public health remains the same; we needed to go into lockdown to drive this variant of concern into the ground because we cannot risk - we cannot risk it running away from us.
"We can't risk it for Victorians. Indeed we can't risk it for Australians. The public health advice to government remains the same."
There were four new local cases and two new cases in hotel quarantine recorded overnight.
Yesterday 24,169 vaccine doses were administered and 49,439 test results were received.
A second press conference will be held on Friday with the Health Minister to discuss the latest case numbers.
A stand-alone quarantine centre for Victoria has taken a step forward with the federal government handing a memorandum of understanding to the state.
The Victorian government put the proposal to the federal government in late April, with a site at Mickleham, north of Melbourne, as its preferred option ahead of Avalon Airport near Geelong.
Victoria wants the Commonwealth to fund and build the 500-bed facility at a cost of $200 million.
"What we can say definitively to all Victorians and all Australians, this will happen," Minister Merlino said on Friday morning. "It's been approved by the Commonwealth.
"They will fund its construction and I'm very pleased at this outcome."
Victoria has requested a doubling of AstraZeneca to the state's GP network and expansion of Pfizer supply.
"We want to see a doubling of the AstraZeneca vaccine to our GPs," Minister Merlino said.
"We also want to see an increase to Pfizer allocations, starting from a further 100,000 from mid-June and some confidence in supply for that six-week period.
"We need some ongoing confidence that that supply is coming."
IN OTHER NEWS
'False positives' declared for COVID cases that drove Melbourne lockdown extension
Two suspected "fleeting" transmission cases of coronavirus used to justify Melbourne's lockdown extension have been declared false positives.
The exclusion of the two false cases revises the total of Melbourne's current outbreak down to 61.
But on Friday morning the Health Department issued a statement, saying there are still eight cases of transmission through passing contact.
It added there are still five exposure sites where the virus has spread through people who do not know each other.
Just hours before the city entered its second week of the shutdown on Friday, Victoria's Department of Health dropped a bombshell prompting fresh scrutiny of the seven-day extension.
Health authorities initially thought a woman caught COVID-19 at a Metricon display home at Mickleham, and believed a man similarly picked up the virus at Brighton Beach Hotel.
The COVID-free pair and their primary close contacts will be released from isolation and any associated exposure sites reclassified, including all in Anglesea along the Great Ocean Road.
The Metricon display home and Brighton Beach Hotel remain linked to other confirmed cases and will remain exposure sites.
Victoria's health department explained authorities always enact immediate health measures for every positive case.
"Those cases can be re-evaluated, their test results can be re-run and further investigations and reviews conducted to confirm their true nature," it said.
On Friday morning, the health department again stressed it still had concerns about how the virus is spreading in the current outbreak.
"Two fewer positive cases is welcome news, but we still have a further eight instances of transmission through passing contact between people who have not directly interacted with each other," it said.
"That's the one in 10 we remain concerned about.
"There are still five exposure sites where this has spread into the community through people who don't know each other ... and we need to be sure we have all those cases fully contained.
"We know this variant is 50 per cent more infectious that what we were dealing with last year."
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has repeatedly described the variant as a "beast".
"If we let this thing run its course, it will explode," said Acting Premier James Merlino when announcing the lockdown extension on Wednesday.
"We've got to run this to ground because if we don't, people will die."
Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien has been critical of the "apocalyptic" language used to describe the Indian variant, and rejoiced in news of the "false positives".
"If the basis for the lockdown extension turned out to be false, it should end. Time for the Labor Government to be upfront with Victorians," he tweeted.
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