Overview
Back in early June, Victoria celebrated recording zero new cases for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Two months later, that number had climbed to 687. That was the peak of the second wave, thankfully, and since then, the numbers have slowly been decreasing — and today, Monday, October 26, Victoria has awoken to some excellent news.
The Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services has sent out its daily Tweet with yesterday's numbers and it's what we all want to see: a big fat zero.
Of course, this doesn't mean the war is over, but it is some much-needed good news after a long period of lockdown.
Since COVID-19 numbers started increasing again in July, a State of Disaster was declared in Victoria, masks have been made mandatory across the state and metro Melbourne has been in lockdown from early August. While Melbourne awaits the latest announcement on eased restrictions — as it races to contain an outbreak in the northern suburbs — this zero new case figure in Victoria is a welcome development indeed.
Today's zero new cases places Victoria's total at 20,343, which includes 19,359 people who have recovered from the coronavirus, as per the state's last reported numbers on Sunday, October 26. So far, Victoria has conducted more than three million tests for COVID-19 since the beginning of 2020.
While restrictions have been easing across the state, the Victorian Government has continued to encourage the state's residents to get tested (especially those in the northern suburbs of Melbourne) and respect the rules. Metro Melbourne is set to progress to its next stage of eased restrictions on Sunday, November 1, but Premier Daniel Andrews says he'll make an announcement on exactly what will change tomorrow, Tuesday, October 27.
The state has been slowly progressing through a five-step roadmap to COVID-normal since mid-September, with different restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
For more information about the status of COVID-19 and the current restrictions, head over to the Department of Health and Human Services website — and for further details about Victoria's steps for reopening, head to the roadmap itself.
Top image: Julia Sansone