Playgrounds can reopen but Melbournes lockdown extended until September 23

Melbourne’s lockdown will be extended until September 23, but coronavirus restrictions may be eased sooner across most of regional Victoria.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the eased restrictions, including an expanded 10-kilometre travel limit, a three-hour exercise limit, outdoor personal training and private real estate inspections, would kick in when 70 per cent of Victorians had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

However, playgrounds can reopen on Friday for children under 12 and in-home care will be allowed if both parents are authorised workers.

Year 12 students, teachers and examiners will be prioritised to receive the coronavirus vaccine, but there will be no face-to-face learning in Greater Melbourne for the rest of term three.

Victoria records 120 new cases

The lockdown extension and modest easing of restrictions were announced as Victoria recorded 120 new local cases of coronavirus.

It is the highest number of new cases recorded across the state in more than a year â€" there were 149 new cases recorded on August 26 during the state’s deadly second wave â€" and comes a day after Victoria recorded two COVID-19 deaths, the first in the state this year.

Of Wednesday’s new cases, 64 were linked to known cases and outbreaks, which means the source of 56 cases remains a mystery.

There are 58 people in hospital with COVID-19 in Victoria, including 21 in intensive care and 14 on a ventilator.

Mr Andrews said at least 20 had been in isolation for their entire infectious period, but there were 122 cases still being investigated by authorities.

Victoria currently has 900 active coronavirus cases.

There were 56,501 COVID-19 tests processed on Tuesday and 33,455 COVID-19 vaccines administered at state run hubs.

Victoria’s COVID-19 numbers going up, not down

Mr Andrews said the state’s public health team had changed its advice to the government in the past two days, making it clear “that we are not going to drive these numbers down, they are going to increase”.

“Now it’s up to us to make sure that they don’t increase too fast, and that they don’t increase too much relative to the number of people who are getting vaccinated every single day, every single week,” he said.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said Wednesday’s new case tally was “not a great number”.

“But 120 is still far fewer cases than we would have seen otherwise, if we hadn’t had the restrictions that we’ve had in place, and continue to have in place,” he said.

Professor Sutton said if people filled available AstraZeneca vaccination appointments in the state, and more people got vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccinations at their GPs, Victoria might reach the goal of 70 per cent of the population vaccinated with one dose sooner than September 23.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar on Wednesday.Credit:Getty

“There’s no question that we’ll get to a plateau - [it’s] how soon can we get there,” Professor Sutton said.

“I would love it to be at the end of the week, I’d love it to be today.

“But the trajectory thus far has been that increase of 30, 35 per cent with every generation of transmission of, you know, five or six days.”

He said case numbers were currently doubling every 11 or 12 days.

QR codes to be introduced as playgrounds reopen

Playgrounds will reopen at 11.59pm on Thursday for children under the age of 12. Only one carer can attend and adults should not remove their masks to eat or drink.

QR codes will be introduced for carers to check in.

In-home care will also be allowed for school aged children if both parents are authorised workers.

Victorian playgrounds are set to be reopened - again.Credit:

No return to face-to-face learning for Melbourne students in term three

Mr Andrews said students in Greater Melbourne would not return to their classrooms in term three.

He said the GAT would go ahead for VCE students on October 5, and the priority in the coming weeks was to vaccinate year 12 students.

Mr Andrews said that, in good time, authorities would move the focus to vaccinating the balance of students - from year 11, all the way down to 12-year-old students.

‘Positive news’ coming for regional Victoria next week: Premier

Mr Andrews said there would be announcements about new freedoms for people in the state’s regions, except for Shepparton, in the coming days.

“We do think we can have some positive news for regional Victoria next week,” he said.

“It will not be a full opening up, there will not be hundreds of people at the pub or the restaurant or the cafe.

“But there will be activity that is possible and safe, and that will be in excess of what’s happening in Melbourne because cases are very different, the epidemiology of regional Victoria is very different.”

Tourism North East chief executive Bess Nolan-Cook said she had hoped regional Victoria would be released from lockdown on Wednesday and operators would be disheartened.

“There’s an enormous amount of disappointment,” Ms Nolan-Cook said.

“It just doesn’t feel like there is a natural end point to living like this.”

Victoria should be 70 per cent double-dosed by October

Professor Sutton said 70 per cent of the state’s population should have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by October, and 80 per cent by November.

Mr Andrews said that at that stage the state could have “an economy that operates for vaccinated people”.

“We talked yesterday about passports, so ... there’s all sorts of activity, provided staff are vaccinated and patrons are vaccinated â€" the place can be opened, there’ll still be [density] limits ... masks ... all of that, but none of that’s possible right now,” he said.

Mr Andrews said he was meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday evening to discuss “what does the whole passport thing look like, what does an economy for the unvaccinated look like”.

Two people who died with COVID-19 in Victoria were not vaccinated

Mr Andrews said he understood that neither of the two Victorian women who died in their homes with COVID-19 on Tuesday were vaccinated against the virus.

They were the first COVID-19 deaths in the state since November 30. One of the women was 49 from Northcote and the other was in her 60s and from Hume.

Mr Andrews said he didn’t believe either of them had been through the vaccine program and was uncertain if either had underlying health conditions.

The deaths were recorded in Wednesday’s official numbers.

Victoria Police enforce border restrictions in Chiltern.Credit:Jason Robins

NSW border situation remains uncertain

Mr Andrews said whether the state’s border with NSW would open in time for Christmas would depend on what’s happening in that state.

“But I am working and have been working very hard in recent weeks to bring many of those people who are stranded in NSW home well before 80 per cent [of the population is vaccinated],” he said.

Mr Andrews said it may be the case that Victoria’s hotel quarantine could be reconfigured to allow more residents stranded in NSW to return home.

With Hanna Mills Turbet, Craig Butt and Melissa Cunningham

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