Victoria's Covid deaths spike despite a fall in local cases
Victoria's daily Covid cases have fallen on Tuesday as Melbourne prepares its exit from lockdown.
The Department of Health reported a further 1749 locally acquired Covid-19 cases, a significant drop from Monday's 1903 and well below the Delta outbreak's peak of 2297.
There were 11 more deaths, taking the outbreak's death toll to 163. The daily death toll is the joint-second highest of the outbreak.
Daily cases have fallen in four of the last five days. There were close to 70,000 tests in the previous 24 hours.
Melbourne and other locked down areas of the state have been granted an early exit on Friday, five days ahead of schedule, when Victoria is expected to hit 70 per cent double-dose coverage of those over 16.
Yet Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has criticised the impending changes as not enough, saying the state's residents should be granted the same freedoms as those in NSW.
On Monday, Mr Andrews responded to criticism of the state's roadmap from Mr Frydenberg.
"This is not about you and your breathless political rants don't work against this virus," Mr Andrews told ABC News Breakfast.
One major difference between the two states is retail, where in metropolitan Melbourne the sector must remain closed unless stores can operate outdoors or use click and collect.
Also from Friday, fully vaccinated, non-household close contacts will have their isolation time halved from 14 days to seven.
More than 40 Victoria Police staff have been stood down and face losing their jobs after refusing to comply with a vaccine mandate.
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