Victoria has had only two new virus cases and no deaths, leaving the state toll on 816 and the national figure at 904.
And in another promising sign ahead of Sunday’s announcement about an easing of restrictions in Melbourne, the city’s rolling 14-day new case average dropped to 8.7 on Oct 16.
The same measure remains steady at 0.6 for regional areas.
Department of Health and Human Services figures also show the number of mystery cases in Melbourne rose by two to 17 for the period September 30 to October 13. There are no mystery cases in regional Victoria.
While the news is promising for Melbourne, 400 people in and around Shepparton are isolating due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in the northern town.
So far three people have been confirmed as being infected and everyone in the area has been told to get tested, overwhelming testing sites set up in Shepparton.
A Melbourne truck driver has been referred to Victoria Police after he initially failed to disclose he had visited Shepparton on September 30 while infected.
It only came to light earlier this week after the first of the three infected people went for testing, leaving health authorities scrambling to contain the virus.
“We have got about 400 people in the Shepparton community that are either cases, contacts or their contacts, so those are three separate groups of people who are all linked through potential chains of transmission,” Premier Daniel Andrews said on Thursday.
“They are isolated at home ... because of one person.”
Shepparton and surrounding towns are now into the third day of a testing blitz.
The driver, who was infected in the Chadstone Shopping Centre outbreak, previously had admitted to visiting Benalla and Kilmore on September 29-30.
He visited the towns on a worker’s permit and illegally dined at a Kilmore cafe, sparking an outbreak there.
The truckie also stayed overnight in Kilmore on September 29.
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said the driver had slipped through the contact tracing net by the time he left for Kilmore.
Andrews has apologised for the long queues at testing sites in Shepparton, saying more will be set up as necessary.
