ELEVEN people have died of coronavirus in Victoria in the last two full days alone, including six on Thursday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Making Victoria's latest coronavirus update on Friday, Premier Daniel Andrews announced 300 new positive tests had been uncovered in the 24 hours to 11.59pm on Thursday,
He said 51 were related to known outbreaks, and the origin of 249 cases were under investigation.
There are 206 Victorians in hospital, including 41 in intensive care.
"Six people have died," Mr Andrews said, taking the total for the pandemic to 55 in Victoria. Mr Andrews said each death was connected to aged care setting, three of those who had died were in 90s and three in 80s.
There is no metro-regional breakdown of cases available yet.
MORE COVID NEWS FROM ACROSS THE WIMMERA
- No new COVID-19 cases in Horsham on Thursday
- Your essential need-to-know guide to the pandemic
- What's closing, or has been cancelled, in the Wimmera this week
- How Ballarat police are working to keep Melburnians in lockdown
- Junior training cancelled due to COVID-19 case
- St Brigid's to return to remote learning for two weeks after student tests positive
Mr Andrews announced there would be 28 teams of Australian Defence Force personnel that would be deployed to doorknock new positive cases, and conduct a contact tracing interview on their doorstep, if they did not respond to the initial phone calls from the government.
He said the defence personnel would be particularly visible across Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, which remain in stage three lockdown.
"If ADF or public health staff visit you and you're not at home, they will continue to keep visiting you, but you will have some clear explaining to do as to why you were not at home isolating," he said.
"On today's numbers, I think it's best we note that number is lower than yesterday, but no one should be moving to provide commentary we have turned a corner. Ultimately it is in our hands, all of us."
Morrison: Still on suppression strategy
Mr Andrews met with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders at a national cabinet meeting prior to providing Friday's update.
Mr Morrison also spoke on Friday, announcing the leaders adopted a the principal of the need to ensure the states' emergency management and health responses were integreated.
"A couple of other points agreed on today was an affirmation of the suppression strategy. The goal of that will always be (to end) community transmission, which the vast majority of states have been at for some time now. That's where we want to get back to with Victoria and New South Wales," he said.
"Today we also agreed to fast-track processes for those 15 major projects I spoke about a few weeks ago. Seven out of eight states have also signed up to the JobTrainer agreement.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox twice weekly from the Wimmera Mail-Times. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Wimmera, sign up below.
