BALLARAT COVID UPDATE | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19
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NEW CASES: 5 (up from from 3 yesterday)
ACTIVE CASES: 61 (down from 69 yesterday)
UPDATE, 12.20PM: The number of active COVID-19 cases in Ballarat continues to fall, despite a handful of new infections being recorded.
There were five new cases confirmed on Tuesday, but the active caseload fell to 61 from 69.
The five new cases all fall within the 3350 postcode, where there are 31 active cases.
Elsewhere, there were nine new cases confirmed in Moorabool after 10 were recorded yesterday.
All of these were in the 3340 postcode of Bacchus Marsh.
There were no new cases in Golden Plains, Pyrenees or Hepburn shires.
Meanwhile, Ballarat has cracked the 70% fully vaccinated benchmark and could crack the 80% goal as early as next week.
Premier Daniel Andrews also revealed on Tuesday that people who do no get vaccinated to COVID-19 will have significant restrictions on their freedom well into 2022.
EARLIER, 9AM: Victoria has recorded 1749 new COVID cases as the state counts down the days until a significant easing of restrictions.
There were also 11 deaths recorded on the 24 hours to midnight on Monday.
More details on the cases will be released later today.
There was 68,702 tests conducted.
There are now 22,476 active cases of the virus in Victoria.
In Ballarat, new COVID cases remain relatively low when compared to other major regional cities.
There were just three new cases confirmed on Monday as the number of active cases actually dropped.
According to the latest Ballarat data on Monday, there was 69 active cases in the city, down from 74 on the day before.
There were 10 new cases confirmed in the Moorabool Shire, nine of which were in the Bacchus Marsh postcode of 3340.
Elsewhere in regional Victoria, Greater Shepparton (221 actives cases), Geelong (231), Mildura (222) and Latrobe (172) are all seeing far higher COVID numbers.
You can see all the Ballarat exposure sites here.
Ballarat has also hit a significant milestone, with 70 per cent of residents over 15 now fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Victoria's COVID-19 commander has suggested businesses split staff into separate groups to avoid entire workforces being knocked out by the virus as the state reopens.
With the state already managing more than 61,000 primary close contacts, Jeroen Weimar said the changes would minimise the impact of reopening on businesses and customers.
"It's not our intention to be in a world where ... every person in a pub is (a close contact) because one positive case has walked in for 15 minutes," he told reporters on Monday.
It is recommended businesses split workforces into separate groups to avoid their entire staff being out of action for a week.
"It is exceptionally likely that come Thursday there will still be 22,000 people with COVID in the state," Mr Weimar said.
"There will be exposures in our shops, in our hospo and all of our other settings, and it'll be down to how effective those control systems are as to minimise the impacts on other people around them at that time."
IN OTHER NEWS
From 11.59pm on Thursday, isolation orders for fully vaccinated, non-household primary close contacts such as work colleagues and friends will be slashed from 14 days to seven.
They will need to return negative test results on their first and sixth day of quarantine to be free to leave their home.
Unvaccinated primary close contacts must isolate for the full two weeks, along with children under 12 who are still ineligible to be vaccinated.
Under the changes from Friday, restrictions for leaving home and the city's nightly curfew will be dumped.
Restrictions will ease further when 80 per cent of the eligible population has received both vaccine doses, forecast by some data analysts to be as early as October 31.
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