Tara Murray
Active COVID-19 cases in Hume and Whittlesea continue to drop as metro Melbourne prepares to move to the first step on the state’s reopening roadmap next week.
Cases across the state have continued to drop in the past week, with just new 11 cases recorded on Monday – the lowest since June 16.
The 14-day case average in metro Melbourne has dropped to 34.4. The 14-day average needs to be between 30 and 50 cases a day in order for restrictions to ease on September 28.
The changes to restrictions from next week are set to include allowing public gatherings of up to five people from a maximum of two households for up to two hours.
Outside exercise is permitted with a personal trainer, while childcare will reopen to non-essential workers.
Some work restrictions will ease, with more workplaces permitted under the second stage.
Overall, there are 743 active cases across the state.
As of Sunday, Hume had 56 active cases, the fifth-highest in the state.
That’s down from 128 active cases on September 6 and 339 on August 20.
Of the current cases in Hume, 25 are in the 3064 postcode, which currently has the sixth-highest number of active cases in the state.
The 3049 postcode has 10 active cases.
Overall, there have been 1644 cases in Hume, the third-most in the state behind Wyndham and Brimbank.
Four Hume locations are on the high-risk location list, according to the Department of Health and Human Services as of Friday.
People at those locations on certain dates may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 and are at a higher risk of catching it.
The locations are Craigieburn Central on September 11, Greenvale Lakes Woolworths on September 6, Roxburgh Park Coles on September 6 and 10 and Roxburgh Park Freshplus on September 10.
In Whittlesea, there are just 23 active cases. It currently has the 10th most active cases in the state.
Nine of the active cases in Whittlesea are from Epping, with the majority linked to the Epping Gardens Aged Care outbreak.
Wollert has just four active cases.
Overall, Whittlesea has recorded 1200 cases.
On Sunday, Premier Daniel Andrews announced that more than 100 live music venues across the state would share in grants totalling $9 million under the Victorian Live Music Venues program.
