PREMIER Daniel Andrews has flagged a different set of rules for regional Victoria, hinting on Tuesday that postcodes not under stage four restrictions may open up sooner.
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Coronavirus cases in regional Victoria have continued to decline, recording just 139 of the state's 2519 active cases.
"Given the low number of cases in regional Victoria and that our strategy has been successful, on Sunday we will speak about two roadmaps, one for metropolitan Melbourne and a second roadmap for regional Victoria," Premier Andrews said.
"That will be based on the case numbers but we believe given the low case numbers it will be possible to have different settings and timelines in regional Victoria given the very different places it's in, in number cases and transmission.
"It's different in regional Victoria."
Premier Andrews said 100,000 tests had been conducted in regional Victoria.
"Not so long ago we topped out 512 cases in regional Victoria so that has steadily fallen and we'll come to what that means for the roadmap out on Sunday.
"Thank you so much to regional Victorians."
Geelong has 50 cases, Bendigo eight and Ballarat five.
Victoria has recorded 70 new coronavirus cases and five deaths overnight.
Two of the five deaths occurred prior to yesterday.
Of those, two were women in their 70s, two women in their 80s, and one woman in her 90s.
All the deaths are linked to aged care.
There are 421 Victorians in hospital, 20 in ICU and seven are on ventilators. 10,153 more tests since yesterday, a dramatic drop on the 14,440 tests processed the day before.
"Come forward and get tested as soon as even the mildest symptoms begin," Mr Andrews said.
"Any symptoms whatsoever, it doesn't matter where you live and what your circumstances.
"Its critically important we have the most complete picture of the virus in Victoria."
It's the lowest testing number since July 23.
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There are 11 more mystery cases with an unknown source.
There are 352 healthcare workers infected with the virus, signalling another fall in industry infections.
There are 1197 active cases in aged care.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he wanted to see no mystery cases in the state and was concerned by the drop in testing uptake.
"Cases continue to be driven down but we have to hold the course, testing is the pathway for us to drive these numbers down," he said.
"We don't know if there's cases in the community if we can't identify them," he said.
"We've not had enough tests over the last 24 hours, we need everyone with symptoms including even headache and fatigue, to step up for testing.
"I think the control of community transmission is the primary responsibility in protecting health workers."
Professor Sutton warned against complacency.
"Holding the course with low numbers is just the thing we need to do to stop it all bouncing back," he said.
"If we aren't aware of cases as we start easing they will persist and then accelerate.
"If we only detect them when large outbreaks happen it will explode.
"If we knew where every Victorian case was right now we could open up in a week, but we don't know where cases are."
