brett sutton
Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton (Image: AAP/James Ross)

New record and restrictions

On Wednesday, new cases in Victoria fell under 300, leading to optimistic speculation the state had passed its peak.

Today, Victoria recorded a staggering 723 new cases and 13 new deaths, by far the worst numbers we’ve seen in Australia during the pandemic. In response, the Andrew government has extended mandatory mask wearing to all regions of the state and banned home visits in the six regional areas of Greater Geelong, the Surf Coast, Moorabool, Golden Plains and the Borough of Queenscliffe. Wedding and funerals have been banned in those areas too.

NSW, meanwhile, continues to see enough low-level community transmission for health officials to describe the situation as “on a knife edge” (a knife’s edge we’ve been on for weeks, it seems). As yet, there’s been no rapid escalation in case numbers. There were 18 new cases in NSW overnight.