Premier Daniel Andrews says state ‘well placed’ to end lockdown, despite two new local cases

Two more cases were also detected in international arrivals, taking the total number of active COVID-19 cases in the state to 25.

The two new local cases confirmed in Victoria on Tuesday are close household contacts of a previously known case and have been self-isolating so are “not unexpected positives”, Mr Andrews said.

He said the two cases returned negative tests a few days ago, but subsequently tested positive once they developed symptoms.

Mr Andrews was speaking to reporters as authorities evacuated one of the state’s “hot” hotels, housing high-risk patients who either have coronavirus or are close contacts of someone who does.

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The returned travellers who were completing their quarantine at the medi-hotel, the Holiday Inn on Flinders Lane, are now being transferred to the Pullman Hotel at Albert Park, while repairs for water damage, from a sprinkler system, are completed.

Mr Andrews also said the Victorian government was considering its options for a purpose-built accommodation hub outside the CBD, to replace the existing hotel quarantine scheme.

“It’s more than just scoping it, we are going to get on and build a facility,” he said.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt also called on Tuesday for a full and independent investigation into a claim from a man at the centre of Victoria’s Holiday Inn outbreak that he declared and was given permission to use a nebuliser at two separate hotel quarantine facilities.

The returned traveller has previously told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald he felt he had been blamed for spreading coronavirus through the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel by using a nebuliser, despite saying he was twice given permission from Victorian health authorities to use the medical device while in quarantine.

Mr Hunt said the patient had put forward a “compelling case”.

“The individual has put forward a clear, categorical case and a very compelling case,” Mr Hunt told radio station 3AW.

“Clearly that needs to be assessed independently, so we know the facts.”

On Monday evening, the Health Department announced two more exposure sites, in Broadmeadows.

The Department of Health has said a positive case visited Sacca’s Fruit World between 12.30pm and 1.15pm last Tuesday.

The shop is inside the Broadmeadows Central shopping centre.

They also visited attended the Woolworths in the same shopping centre between 12.15pm and 12.30pm on February 9.

Hours after the first doses of the long-awaited Pfizer vaccine landed on Australian shores, the TGA granted provisional approval for the AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday, paving the way for all Australians to receive a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.

Mr Hunt warned people will not be able to “vaccine shop” and the coronavirus jab they receive will likely be determined by the medical supply of where they decide to go.

When asked about whether Australians would be able to request Pfizer, which has a higher efficacy rate of 95 per cent, Mr Hunt responded “no”.

“It will be where you go and what’s being distributed there,” Mr Hunt told radio station 3AW on Tuesday morning.

He said it was likely much of the population would be vaccinated with AstraZeneca, describing it as “the backbone” of the global vaccine program.

“These vaccines are showing outstanding outcomes around the world,” he said

“All of the initial vaccines, in particular the Pfizer and AstraZeneca, are offering immense protection against serious illness and hospitalisation and loss of life.”

The federal government has signed up to buy 51 million doses of Novavax’s two-shot vaccine and Mr Hunt said the vaccine will be made available in Australia as early as the middle of this year.