There has been an increase in new cases in Victoria today, with 240 new infections in the past 24 hours – up from 216 yesterday – and 13 deaths.

Mr Andrews said loosening restrictions was “not just about the raw number of new cases”. 

“It will be some of the circumstances that sit behind those,” he said. “If you had very low numbers of community transmission or mystery cases, and you had 20 cases, but they were all linked to known and contained outbreaks, then that is, in fact, in some respects, a lower number than it might seem.”

He said Victoria is not ready to talk about easing restrictions yet and that the state risk a “third wave” if it opens up too quickly.

“We’ve just got to, I think, accept, as tough as it is, that we’ve still got a long way to go in this and we have to keep, all of us, doing everything we possibly can to drive those numbers down and down further,” he said. “Then there’ll be a time where we can say, ‘Yes, we’re past this. Now let’s have a proper discussion about what’s a proportionate easing.’ Then, of course, debates will start again about whether you’re opening up too fast or too slow.

“That will be a great day when we’re having those debates again about opening up too fast, too slow. But we have to stay the course. We have numbers in the low 200s, the trend is good. We have to acknowledge that even at that number, even at that half number, if you opened up, you wouldn’t have defeated the second wave – you’d just be beginning the process of a third wave. I don’t think anyone wants that.”