Doubt has been cast over a potential easing of coronavirus restrictions in Melbourne.
Premier Daniel Andrews had earlier said the retail and hospitality industries could expect a “significant” announcement on Sunday.
Reports circulated on Saturday morning that businesses had been told to prepare to stock their shelves for a reopening as early as the middle of next week.
But Andrews later in the afternoon shed doubt on those claims by warning Victorians not to “bank” on it.
“I just want to caution people from, if you like, banking that tomorrow I’m making a whole series of detailed announcements about opening up,” he said.
“We do hope to get to that point but with so many thousands of tests that are still being processed, we need to see the results of those tests.”
He did not go so far as to rule out announcing any changes – but said waiting for test results to come back was the priority.
A blitz is underway in the city’s north following an outbreak at a school.
More than 30 cases are now linked to the East Preston Islamic College with more than 400 people linked to the school in isolation.
Test rates in the area increased by 35 per cent on Friday, Victoria’s testing commander Jeroen Weimar said.
“It’s exactly what we need at this time as we really try to get our hands around all aspects of the metro north outbreak to fully understand any other positive cases we may have within our community.”
Those test results, Andrews said, would likely not come through until Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
“What we are hopeful of is that there are connections and linkages between these cases and these cases do not speak to the virus being in the northern suburbs more than we had thought,” he said.
“We are in a very good position and if we can proceed tomorrow we will.”
The original plan was to allow the hospitality and retail industries to reopen on November 1.
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