Some restrictions on regional Victorians will be eased from 11:59pm tonight, the Acting Premier James Merlino has confirmed.
Victoria has reported two new local coronavirus cases, taking the state's outbreak to 63.
Key points:
- The positive cases came from a record 57,519 test results received on Wednesday
- More than 23,900 doses of vaccine were administered at state-run centres on Wednesday
- Some people are still reporting difficulty getting appointments for the Pfizer vaccine
The state recorded a total of three local cases on Wednesday, which includes a resident of the Arcare Maidstone aged care home, whose infection was revealed on Wednesday afternoon.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said he would not be surprised if the outbreak at Arcare Maidstone grew from the current five cases.
"Arcare have done very well in terms of infection control, but obviously people that were exposed before they knew about the first cases are potentially still incubating," he said.
"What's important is that they maintain that infection control and there's no further chains of transmission but obviously it wouldn't be unexpected if more people in the facility became infected."
All of the new cases were close contacts of existing cases and all were quarantining and in isolation for the entire infectious period.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said one mystery case in the outbreak had now been linked to an existing case.
Three other mystery cases remain.
A family of four is among the new cases recorded in recent days, including two children who attended North Melbourne Primary School.
Professor Cheng said 243 Tier 1 and Tier 2 contacts had been identified at the school, and they were being tested via a designated testing lane at Melbourne Showgrounds.
The results were detected among 57,519 test results received on Wednesday, a record for the state, as 23,921 vaccination doses were administered at state-run vaccination sites — also a record.
Across state-run centres and GP clinics, more than 50,000 people in Victoria received a dose of vaccine yesterday.
Subject to public health advice, regional Victoria is set to ease restrictions after 11:59pm tonight, while metropolitan Melbourne will remain in lockdown for another week.
ABC News: Billy Draper
)Contact tracers are still trying to identify a number of transmission points in the outbreak, including how the virus jumped from a Wollert man infected in South Australian hotel quarantine on May 4 to early cases in the outbreak.
The infection sources also remain unclear for an Arcare aged care worker and a family of four whose travel to New South Wales resulted in several exposure sites along the Hume Freeway and into New South Wales.
Access to vaccines still an issue for some
Professor Cheng confirmed Victoria was having some difficulty with supply of the Pfizer vaccine, but said stores had not run out.
"We are still vaccinating at the moment, I think in terms of forward bookings there's a shortage, but I'm not sure of exactly when that supply will become available," he said.
"In general, there is a constrained supply of Pfizer vaccines.
"If we had more we would be able to give more.
"But there's a supply chain, it comes from the Commonwealth and in turn that comes from overseas and we're making do with what we've got at the moment."
Some people in Victoria eligible for the Pfizer vaccine are continuing to report difficulties in getting appointments at the state's vaccination centres.
The state government expanded eligibility criteria last week, opening up vaccination centres to people aged 40 to 49 for access to the Pfizer vaccine.
One caller to ABC Radio Melbourne this morning, Paul, said he rang the COVID-19 hotline for several days trying to get an appointment, and was ultimately told this morning by a call operator that that there was no Pfizer vaccine available, and he should call back in 5-7 days.
The health department said call operators had no knowledge of vaccine supply, but may have run out of appointment times.
Another caller said she lined up at a vaccination centre without an appointment on Thursday morning and received a dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
Monash Health CEO, Andrew Stripp, who is managing vaccination clinics in Melbourne's south-east, said he had not experienced any issues with supply.
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"In broad terms, we've been doing about 5,500 vaccinations a day [in the south-east] since the beginning of the outbreak, and about a quarter of those are Pfizer," he said.
"There's a lot of work going in to that online booking system, which I think will be much more accessible for people."
Victorian AMA President, Roderick McRae, said the difficulty people were having getting vaccine appointments was not necessarily a bad thing.
"When the lines are busy that means people are doing the right thing and trying to get vaccinated," he said.
Dr McRae backed calls for vaccine supplies from other states to be diverted to Victoria to combat the state's COVID-19 outbreak.
"It's important that citizens, say, of Darwin or somewhere far away get there vaccinations in a steady way but we need them today."
Victoria reports two new local COVID-19 cases after record number of tests - ABC News
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