Officials Say Melbourne is Set To See Restrictions Ease Despite Five New Cases

Melbourne has recorded 5 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, but it shouldn't impact the plan to ease restrictions on Friday.

Late Tuesday an entire apartment complex in Southbank went into lockdown for 14 days, after two cases of the virus were detected. A strain of Covid was detected in two males living in separate apartments at the Kings Park Complex at Dodds and Wells Streets.

The Department of Health has confirmed the other three cases are linked to current outbreaks.

40 new exposure sites have been added, including the apartment complex which has been classified as Tier 1.

The entire South Melbourne market has been classified as a tier 2 exposure site between 11.30 am and 1.30 pm on Saturday.

Bunnings Port Melbourne, Kmart in the CBD, and Ikea and Richmond have now been added to the list.

Epidemiologist Professor Catherine Bennett says it shouldn't stop restrictions easing further but masks outdoors will likely stick around.

"We have seen some local transmission and that then takes that risk out to local shopping areas, so it is important that people test, but we shouldn’t worry too much about it being a wider incident because they are onto it very early."

Other restrictions expected to be relaxed from Friday include the 25km travel limit being removed, gyms should get the green light to reopen, we should see more people at restaurants, bars, and offices and be allowed to have up to two guests at home.

Our daily Covid check shows 10,602 Victorians received a covid vaccination in the past day with a total of 1,755,849 doses so far.

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