PREMIUM
News

Greater Shepparton has two active cases of COVID-19 but total remains on 17.

The number of active cases in Greater Shepparton has increased to two yet the total number of cases ever recorded in the region remains at 17.

The Department of Health and Human Services said the published local government area data can at times change.

“Our LGA data is continually analysed and clarified as our contact tracing teams gather information – so published numbers will always be subject to change,” a DHHS spokesperson said.

“The health of the community is always our number one priority and we communicate information to Victorians as soon as it becomes available to us.

"When our LGA data reflects a new active case, residential location is the residential address provided when the case is notified.

"This is not necessarily where the person was infected and may not be where the individual currently resides."

Victoria recorded 363 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, with the total number of cases now at 5696.

Of the total cases, 5233 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 336 are from regional Victoria.

Three new deaths have been reported since Sunday - two men in their 90s and a woman in her 90s which brings the total number of people who have died in Victoria from the coronavirus to 38.

The extra active case in the region comes as the Victorian Government announced increased COVID-19 testing hours at Goulburn Valley Health.

Goulburn Valley Health will also be the site of a new public health team dedicated to tracking and following up COVID-19 cases in the region.

Mr Andrews said regional areas would see more asymptomatic testing in the weeks and months to come.

Mr Andrews also responded to concerns about lockdown residents travelling into Shepparton, saying the rules would be tightened if necessary.

“If we got advice to say there… was a whole lot of behaviour that was contributing to cases, then we will not hesitate to act on that,” Mr Andrews said.

“We're always happy to to go further, if the evidence says that people are not behaving as they should.”

Mr Andrews said while most people were doing the right thing, some were trying to get around lockdown restrictions, such as enrol their children in regional Victorian schools.

“We've said no to that - you can only be enrolled at one school.”

Mr Andrews said people wanting to inspect property in regional areas should have a "pretty good case" to justify it.

“(And) there's no need to be traveling to regional Victoria to buy goods and services that you can get in Melbourne,” he said.

“Everyone has a shared interest in these numbers in regional Victoria remaining low.”

Although the number of active cases in the Campaspe Shire remains at zero, nine people were issued fines by Kyabram Police on Saturday after they were found in breach of COVID-19 social-gathering restrictions.

Six officers were called to a residence which was found to be hosting 30 to 40 people on McCormick Rd, Kyabram.

Kyabram Police spokesperson said the people involved were celebrating a birthday and each person present over the age of 18 was issued a fine of $1652.

On Sunday Mr Andrews announced people living in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire would now be required to wear a face covering when leaving home for one of the four reasons, following a concerning increase in coronavirus cases in recent days.

He also encouraged all regional Victorians to wear masks if unable to socially distance in public places.

More local news

Drop in breast cancer reporting

Keeping Shepparton connected during the pandemic