Providing an update to the media, Premier Daniel Andrews said 26 of those cases are connected to known outbreaks, and the rest are still under investigation.
“I know there will be great concern about these numbers. People will feel deeply concerned to see that number as high as it is,” Andrews said.
“I just want to remind everybody that we have been very, very clear – we didn’t take this step to return to staying at home, except for the four reasons, for metropolitan Melbourne because the numbers were stable, we didn’t take that step because we didn’t have a problem, we took that step because we knew it would need to get worse before it got better and that unless we took those steps we simply wouldn’t be able to bring a sense of control to this.”
Andrews said 47 Victorians are in hospital, and 12 are in intensive care. 37,588 tests were carried out in Victoria yesterday, which is the biggest single day of testing that has been done by a considerable margin.
The premier encouraged people in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire to wear face masks if they can’t maintain physical distancing while outside their homes.
“When you are out of your home for one of those four permitted reasons and when you can’t maintain that 1.5m social distance, so whether you are in an Uber or a taxi or if you are on public transport, many other examples … it is our request of you, it’s not compulsory, we are simply asking that if you can wear a mask where you can’t distance, that is exactly what we would like you to do,” he said.
“That’s a relatively small contribution but one that could make a really big difference.”
