Victoria has recorded 14 straight days of no new coronavirus cases or deaths, prompting a call for state borders to be reopened.
People walk past a swan around Melbourne's Albert Park Lake. (file pic) Photo: AFP
The 14-day rolling average of new cases per day is now zero.
There are three active cases, and one mystery infection with an unknown source of origin.
Premier Daniel Andrews said health authorities conducted 12,001 coronavirus tests yesterday across Victoria.
"It's such a powerful and important thing for people to go and get tested as soon as they get a sense of symptoms, even the mildest of symptoms," he said.
Andrews said the continued run of zero new cases per day did not put him under any more pressure to speed up the reopening of Victoria's economy.
"You can't run, you can't sprint to Covid normal," he said.
"No economy functions well when you've got rampant transmission of infectious diseases, you can't have economic repair until you've dealt with the health problem."
Daniel Andrews: "You can't sprint to Covid normal." Photo: MARK PETERSON / AFP
Andrews will announce on 22 November what restrictions will be eased as part of Victoria's roadmap to reopening, but he would not commit to easing requirements around the wearing of masks.
"They won't be here with us forever, but for as long as they serve a really important purpose, as a sort of insurance policy almost," he said.
Renewed call for state borders to reopen
An infectious diseases expert at the Peter Doherty Institute, Sharon Lewin, said there was now a strong case for lifting border restrictions across the country.
"Now that we've had no coronavirus community transmission in New South Wales for five days, similar in Victoria for 14 days, we really need to see the borders opening up," Professor Lewin said.
The border between New South Wales and Victoria is due to reopen on 23 November.
Queensland's Chief Health Officer, Jeannette Young, this week said she was hopeful state's border would be opened to Victorians by early December.
Professor Lewin believed it was unlikely a full lockdown, as experienced by Melburnians, would ever be needed again.
"I doubt that very much," she said.
"I think with really good testing, really good contact tracing, information sharing across the country, any new coronavirus that comes in - and we are always at risk of that - we have those capabilities ready to go."
Funding for infectious disease centre in Melbourne
Andrews has announced that the upcoming state budget would include a $A155 million ($NZ164m) contribution towards an Australian Institute of Infectious Disease.
The centre would cost $550 million, with the state government's contribution to be matched by the University of Melbourne and its partners.
The remaining funds for the institute would be sought from the Commonwealth government.
"This is a $155 million investment in changing lives, saving lives, creating jobs, and making sure that the things Melbourne and Victoria are renowned for, become a bigger part of our story in the decades to come," Andrews said.
The Australian Institute of Infectious Disease would be built next to the Peter Doherty Institute, and would house experts from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, the University of Melbourne and biotechnology giant CSL.
The new facility would also become the new home of the Burnet Institute, which is currently based at the Alfred Hospital.
Burnet Institute chief executive, Brendan Crabb, said the announcement was a "red letter day" in the fight against infectious diseases.
"We will face future challenges, we could face even worse challenges, and we've still got very big ones today: endemics of the past that are still with us - HIV, TB, malaria, for example, as well as Covid-19," Professor Crabb said.
- ABC