Victoria Records 14 New Local Cases As Prahran Market Gets The Go-Ahead To Re-Open

Victoria has seen a positive dip with 14 new local Covid cases recorded on Friday.

All linked to current outbreaks, 10 of the cases were in quarantine during their entire infectious period, meanwhile one of the remaining four is still being interviewed by the Department of Health.

Premier says "trend is with us"but he can't predict if lockdown will end Tuesday

Acting Chief Health Officer Professor Ben Cowie said its stats like that that have us on track to come out of lockdown as planned.

"That is a fundamental element that reassures me that we are going in the right direction. We also don't have any mystery cases in this outbreak, we know where people have acquired their infection and that means were able to then connect the dots, establish a ring around those individuals and so on"

- Prof Ben Cowie

The lockdown is scheduled to end at 11:59pm on Tuesday.

Looking to NSW and Premier Daniel Andrews said in Friday's conference that he was in agreeance with his NSW counterpart Gladys Berejiklian that the Sydney outbreak is a national emergency. But reflecting on Victoria’s similar scenario last year, believes there should be a ring of steel surrounding Sydney so that cases don’t spread around Australia.

“They have a very significant challenge. Many, many cases and many of those cases out and about for the entirety of their infectious period. Then another number of people who are out and about for at least some of their infectious period. That trend is not what you want to see.”

- Premier Dan Andrews

In the meantime, the Prahran Market is back in action after it was deemed a Tier one exposure site when a positive Covid case visited the market, while infectious.

Chair Samantha Winter said they received permits to reopen following an extensive deep clean, but now means stalls have other issues to sort out.

"People are trying to reassess how they can get some staff because obviously Saturday is out busy day, so a lot of the traders had their full teams in"

- Samantha Winter

Finally, Monash Health have announced no more Casey Hospital staff have tested positive to Covid-19 after a staff member worked one shift while potentially infectious.

Keep up to date on the latest Covid exposure site here

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