A new COVID-19 case has been confirmed in the Horsham Rural City Council local government area.
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The Wimmera Health Care Group told the Mail-Times that a Horsham resident welcomed a visitor from Melbourne over the weekend. Both have since tested positive and contact-tracing is underway.
The visitor has since returned to Melbourne.
The WHCG said the Horsham resident immediately self-isolated.
It is not know why the Melbourne resident was visiting Horsham.
People living under metropolitan Melbourne's stage four restrictions can be granted exemptions to travel to regional Victoria for work, healthcare or caregiving purposes.
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As of Thursday morning, there are now three active cases in Horsham.
This is the first new active case reported in the municipality since August 13.
There were no active cases in any other shires in the Wimmera and surrounds.
Across the state, there were 113 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.
Sadly, a further 15 Victorians lost their lives to the virus.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said on Thursday there was a dangerous chance of the virus spreading from just one infected person when asked if he was concerned by regional case numbers.
"When you start getting into smaller (case) numbers chance does play a bigger and bigger role," he said.
"The regions are probably a good example of that.
While you're here...
"The numbers have been coming down, but one person transmitting to their household, or one person that has been to a number of places and potentially infected a number of others, can make the numbers go up and down."
Victoria Police has established vehicle checkpoints outside metropolitan Melbourne to stop the virus seeping into regional communities.
In the 24 hours leading up to Thursday morning, police checked 20,156 vehicles statewide.
Eleven people were fined at vehicle checkpoints for breaching CHO directions.
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