In good news for the state, Premier Dan Andrews just announced that the total number of active cases in Victoria has dropped by a staggering 2,291 overnight, heralding a sharp drop that brings the total number of active cases back under 5,000 for the first time since July 29.
Addressing media a short time ago during his regular daily press conference, Andrews confirmed that the number of active cases in Victoria has fallen to 4,864, down from yesterday’s mark of 7,155.
That reduction in active case numbers has been building across the past handful of days, with triple-digit reductions recorded every day since Sunday. However today’s massive decrease in active case numbers still ranks as something of an anomaly.
The massive decline is due in large part to what Deputy Chief Health Officer Allan Cheng called the “release from isolation” process.
All people who do test positive to COVID-19 have to undergo an exit interview process in order to be released from isolation and recorded as a recovered case. Andrews stated that “there’s been powerful work gone on in terms of that exit process, if you like, going back and making sure that people without symptoms can return to normal, or at least COVID-normal.”
Further elaborating on that process, Cheng stated “what it does involve is making sure that [people’s] symptoms have cleared and enough time has lapsed since the start of their illness to allow them to be released from isolation.”
Some patients, including those who have ongoing symptoms, those who are in hospital and those who have been in hospital, require additional swabs. It’s not a simple process. A lot of work has gone in over the last couple of days to clear people from isolation so that they can go back into their normal activities,” he said.
Victoria recorded a further 240 new cases of COVID-19 overnight, with a further 13 deaths. Eight of those deaths are linked to aged care.
