It will be at least one week, but maybe not too much more, before coronavirus restrictions will be eased in the North East.
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Victorian premier Daniel Andrews confirmed on Wednesday that regional Victoria was close to meeting the targets set out in the weekend's roadmap.
"We've still got a week or so to go at least before we would hit that target, but the signs are promising," he told regional media.
He said his mum, who lives in Wangaratta, was one of the people regularly telling him that the North East had been virus-free for months.
Wednesday's numbers showed the average cases in regional Victoria over the past 14 days was right on the trigger point of five, but there were still "mystery cases" that could not be traced.
Asked if regional Victoria could immediately have restrictions eased when the targets were met, Mr Andrews said there was one more requirement: keeping up the testing numbers.
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There had been suggestions to the premier that regional communities would stop getting tested to help lower the numbers.
"If we see the testing numbers tank then we won't have the confidence to be able to take that next step," Mr Andrews said.
"The overall test numbers in regional Victoria, there are enough for us to have confidence that it's a good proxy for how much virus is out there ... There are no further hoops than that."
Businesses have called for the virus-free North East to move through the steps faster than regions with higher numbers.
Mr Andrews had a different plan, saying if the Geelong corridor ended up holding other regions back, that area would stay at current restriction levels, while the rest of regional Victoria moved forward as one.
He said regions with no case numbers have asked "why do we have to wait?", but a plan for different "zones" would have only been introduced if there was going to be a six to eight week difference between them meeting the trigger point.
"Regional communities very jealously guard their low or no virus status. It's a point of pride, they've done an amazing job," he said.
"If you have nine different sets of rules across regional Victoria and you can't defend them, because we haven't got an unlimited number of police to out on roadblocks literally everywhere, then what happens is a regional zone ... if you pubs are open, your cafes and restaurants are open - you'll finish up with people travelling from higher risk regional Victorian zones to you."
He said waiting a bit longer for all of regional Victoria to be on the same setting would ensure safe movements around the state.
The indications were that both step two and three of the roadmap, involving visitors to homes and more businesses opening, was close.
"Regional Victoria will likely be able to take not just the second, but the third step ... It's only a matter of weeks, I think it's very soon," Mr Andrews said.
