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VICTORIA'S chief health officer is feeling optimistic that the state will come out of lockdown on Tuesday night.
"I feel we are on track," Professor Brett Sutton told reporters on Saturday.
"I expect there will be further cases. I expect there would be new cases right through to Tuesday. They should be decreasing over time.
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"There are no magic numbers (to come out of lockdown). There has never been a magic number and they never will be.
"They are part of our overall assessment but the key aim is to have no new exposure sides emerging.
"If they happen to emerge, we need to have that level of confidence that we can chase them down... and can respond to them quickly."
Noon
MORE than 22,000 primary close contacts are isolating in Victoria as a result of the latest COVID-19 outbreak.
Health Minister Martin Foley thanked those people, saying they have done the "hard yards" on behalf of the rest of the community.
"It is an extraordinary number, the highest number we have had during the course of the pandemic," Mr Foley said.
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"I want to thank every single Victorian, both those 22,700 and others who are part of the frame of making sure we get those people through their isolation period, because that is just so important."
Mr Foley confirmed that of the 12 new cases recorded on Saturday, 10 people were in isolation throughout their entire infectious period.
The two remaining cases were only in the community for less than a day.
Mr Foley said there were 10 Victorian cases who were in hospital. Three of those people were in intensive care and one person was on ventilators.
Earlier
VICTORIA has recorded 12 new locally-acquired COVID-19 cases since Friday.
The Department of Health confirmed all of the cases were linked to the current Delta outbreaks.
Ten of the 12 cases were isolating throughout their entire infectious period.
There were also 39,846 coronavirus test results recorded in Victoria on Friday, as well as another 19,281 vaccinations.
Victoria's active COVID-19 case tally now sits at 169.
The numbers came after Premier Daniel Andrews called for a ring of steel around Sydney as NSW declared a national emergency.
Coronavirus case numbers continue to climb in NSW, with 136 cases announced on Friday.
Mr Andrews said it was a "national responsibility" that Sydneysiders were locked into Sydney.
"We need a ring of steel around Sydney so that this virus is not spreading into other parts of our nation," he told reporters on Friday.
"Let's focus on what's going on in Sydney, let's focus on not spreading what's going on in Sydney across the rest of our country.
"We will finish up with the whole country locked down if we don't do this properly."
The federal health department also updated their eligibility criteria for Pfizer vaccinations to include people who are pregnant.
The change comes after the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) made a joint statement in June confirming the Pfizer vaccine was safe for pregnant people.
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