Victoria has taken a promising step forward in its fight against COVID-19, with 43 new cases confirmed in the 24 hours up until midnight on Thursday.
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The new tally is the second lowest 24-hour total since the second wave began, slightly higher than the 41 new cases on Monday.
It is just the second time new daily cases have fallen below 50 for the day since June.
However, there were still nine deaths recorded.
More information about the cases will be released later today.
Regional Victoria continues to edge closer to hitting the benchmark for advancing to 'step three'.
The 14-day new case average was down to 4.5 yesterday, well below the benchmark of five.
However, there were still eight mystery cases in the two weeks up until September 8 (the latest data currently available).
There needs to be zero mystery cases in the regions for two weeks in order to advance to the 'third step'.
In Ballarat, there are now no longer any active cases, as of Wednesday, September 9.
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"What that shows us is that regional Victoria are quite close to being able to take perhaps not just one step, but two," Premier Daniel Andrews said on Thursday.
"If the trend continues, and the numbers are very promising, we'll be able to take a step, or steps, as early as toward the end of next week."
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said things are looking "fairly good" in regional Victoria and there are not many cases with an unknown source.
He said health authorities are confident an outbreak of 30 cases at Colac is under control.
"The cases that we have, we know where they are," he said.
"One case that arrived in Colac resulted in 30 secondary cases. But we know where they are.
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