The state recorded 567 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases on Monday – the highest of the outbreak so far – but for the second day in a row a follow up tweet with the number of cases linked to existing outbreaks was absent.Mystery cases peaked at 473 on Saturday when only 62 infections could be linked to existing positive cases by the time the numbers were released around 9am.More than 2000 mystery cases were reported from Monday to Saturday last week, about 72 per cent of the state’s 2900 cases.It’s understood as the number of cases grows, it takes more time for contact tracers to link infections to existing outbreaks and the figure may not be as accurate earlier in the day.A source said releasing a lower figure of linked cases early in the day could be less meaningful as it may increase throughout the day as more positive cases are linked to existing infections.“When you’ve got just a couple of cases your overwhelming means of control are through contact tracing and isolation,” chief health officer Brett Sutton said.“Where you’ve got very widespread transmission where the majority of cases aren’t necessarily linked then you need every other measure to suppress those numbers.”Health Minister Martin Foley said the contact tracing system was “under pressure”.“When you’ve got several thousands of cases that has got to be dealt with in a different way than if there’s several hundred cases,” he said.“Dealing with several thousand active cases is more challenging than dealing with single or double digit numbers.”Monday is the ninth straight day Victoria has recorded more than 400 new cases and fifth in a row above 500 as infections remain high despite lockdown.One new death was also announced by the health department on Monday.Twelve people have died with Covid during the latest outbreak, with 832 lives lost since the start of the pandemic.Premier Dan Andrews has finally announced the state’s much anticipated road map out of lockdown where he revealed Melbourne would remain under stay-at-home orders until 70 per cent of the state was fully vaccinated.He said that was likely to occur around October 26, meaning Melburnians are facing another five weeks in lockdown.“The notion of opening this place up very quickly at 70 per cent or 60 per cent simply cannot be done,” Mr Andrews said.The Premier also revealed “sobering” modelling under the road map that predicts Victorian Covid-19 deaths would peak at 2200 in January.Mr Andrews said the modelling assume cases would peak at about 4500 cases a day by December 15, hospital admissions would peak around 3150 towards the end of December and in January deaths due to the Delta variant would peak around 2200.No new cases were recorded in hotel quarantine on Monday. More than 20,000 primary close contacts remain in isolation in Victoria.There are now 5675 active cases in the state.jack.paynter@news.com.au
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