Victoria

Today's daily case count is the lowest recorded in Victoria since 26 September, when the state recorded 845 cases, 695 of which were local.

There are now 17,518 active cases of the virus in Victoria, and 416 people have died in the state during the current Delta outbreak.

There are 378 people in hospital with the virus, of whom 78 are in intensive care and 48 are on a ventilator.

The health department said a further 71 people are in intensive care, but their Covid-19 infections are no longer considered active.

Contact tracers have so far linked 121 of the new cases to existing outbreaks, but the number of cases who were in the community while infectious is no longer being reported each day.

The new cases resulted from 42,258 test results processed on Sunday, when 29,955 vaccine doses were delivered at state-run sites.

Last week the Victorian government shifted away from trying to reach zero cases of coronavirus in the community, and is instead focusing on keeping case numbers as low as possible while getting people vaccinated.

The new cases, which are all linked to previous cases in the outbreak, were detected from among 43,618 test results processed on Friday.

It is the highest single-day increase in local cases this year, ahead of 27 cases detected on 21July.

The number of exposure sites linked to the outbreak continues to grow, with supermarkets and a GP clinic among the latest locations added in Melbourne's west.

The department said the man worked at the Holiday Inn hotel at Melbourne Airport, and it was contacting the hotel along with the case's close contacts.

The worker returned a negative test result on 4 February and returned to work on 7 February, where they developed symptoms and tested positive.

"We are contacting Holiday Inn Airport workers and others who are considered primary close contacts," the department said.

"They are required to immediately isolate, get tested and remain isolated for 14 days."

Warning in NSW

At the stroke of midnight, police vehicles joined the ends of queues at each border checkpoint to mark the midnight closure. Travellers were told earlier on Friday they would need to be in line before 11:59pm in order to make it home.

"At midnight, regardless of how long the queue is, we'll have a police car go to the end of that queue," Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said earlier.

"If you are there by midnight, regardless of whether you're actually processed, you're included as arriving prior to midnight."

There are now just four active cases in Victoria.

Two of those are 'mystery' cases with an unknown source of infection.

Health authorities carried out 10,653 Covid-19 tests in the past 24 hours.

Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday lifted restrictions across a number of industries, as well as easing some of the limits on social gatherings in Melbourne.

Gyms, cinemas and libraries have been cleared to reopen, but with strict limits on the number of patrons.

Melbourne's 14-day rolling average for new cases has now fallen to 3.6, and there are seven "mystery" cases.

In regional Victoria the average remains at 0.2.

It is the first day since June 9 that no new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Victoria.

Victoria’s commander of testing and community engagement, Jeroen Weimar, said 2,100 tests had been processed from the northern suburbs from yesterday and hundreds more would go through laboratories today.

Twenty-eight new cases are connected to contained outbreaks and 289 cases are under investigation.

In announcing the figures, Premier Daniel Andrews said it was too early to consider stage four restrictions.

"We're seeing relative stability to these numbers," he said. "We have made the point with these stay-at-home restrictions only a week old, it will take some time to bring stability to the numbers and to start to see a pattern where they are driven down."

Andrews announced the closure at a press conference this morning where he said Victoria had recorded a further 127 new coronavirus cases and a man in his 90s had died in a Victorian hospital.

He said the decision to close the border followed talks with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The three leaders agreed closing the border would be the "smart call" at this point in time, Mr Andrews said.

Heavy rain continued to fall across much of the Australian state and authorities prepared for possible evacuations in the north-east.

The state is enduring what the weather bureau says is an "unprecedented" deluge that could bring three months' of rain in three days, with another 150mm forecast to fall in some areas.

While the threat has eased somewhat in Melbourne, emergency workers are paying particular attention to the north-east ranges, where significant flooding is expected and warnings have been issued for the Ovens and King rivers.