The Victorian government has promised to set up suburban contact tracing hubs but hasn't said when. Experts say the local units 'can't come soon enough'.
Victoria on Thursday reported 28 more COVID-19 diagnoses, the first time since June the new daily cases dipped below 30. The 14-day daily case average is 44.4 for Melbourne. That average must stay between 30 and 50 cases for the city to ease restrictions on September 28.Professor Rubin would not comment on the merits of Victoria’s current contact tracing system, but said NSW’s decentralised model had helped it respond to the coronavirus pandemic effectively.
Professor McLaws said it was positive that the state was already using local resources to contain an outbreak in Casey in Melbourne's south-east. "Certainly from my point of view they look like ambitious targets on the basis of where we've been," he told"One hopes that there's some flexibility in these numbers going forward ... all I can report is from my social network is that the last week or two of the lockdown, which is now six to seven weeks, is starting to have a real impact."
Government modelling used for its road map predicted a daily case load of more than 60 by Thursday, more than double the actual figure."Of course if we finish up ahead of schedule, then, we will adjust things and we'll have more to say about that at the appropriate time,” he said. Deputy Chief Health Officer Allan Cheng also indicated there could be some flexibility in the triggers for moving from step two to step three in easing restrictions.Professor Cheng said he was worried about the Casey cluster where the infection sites likely included a number of households.
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