Victoria has officially overtaken New South Wales in daily Covid case numbers, recording its highest since the beginning of this Delta outbreak.
It comes as the state’s health department revealed an error meant almost 150 cases had not been tallied over the weekend.
On Tuesday, Victoria recorded 867 new, locally acquired cases and four deaths.
The City of Latrobe will enter a seven day lockdown from 11.59pm Tuesday, after case numbers increased to 18, including a further four cases detected later on Tuesday afternoon.
“A number of these cases were unfortunately infectious in the community for a number of days,” the health deputy secretary, Kate Matson, said.
“And we are aware of a household gathering that occurred over the weekend, so we have concerns these case numbers will grow.”
Residents will be under the same restrictions as metropolitan Melbourne, excluding the curfew, and will be unable to travel to elsewhere in regional Victoria other than for essential reasons.
The acting chief health officer, Ben Cowie, said it was “vital” to protect the rest of regional Victoria from significant outbreaks.
“We’ve just seen the Ballarat and Geelong communities get through an outbreak so we know it can be done,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, residents in Moe, Morwell and Traralgon in the Latrobe Valley have been asked to be on “high alert” for symptoms and to monitor the exposure list, with testing capacity to boost in Latrobe, Baw Baw and Bass Coast.
Matson said more than 50% of Tuesday’s cases were in the northern suburbs, including 270 in Hume, 125 in Whittlesea, 88 in Moreland, 43 in Darebin, and 24 in Banyule.
The state was on track to hit its goal of having 80% first dose vaccination of those aged 16-plus by the end of Tuesday, with some restrictions easing at midnight.
The four deaths were a man in his 80s from Whittlesea, a woman in her 80s and a man in his 70s, both from Hume, and a woman from Whittlesea, her age unknown.
A software malfunction over the weekend in Victoria meant 149 cases were not counted in the overall numbers.
This included 140 cases that had now been added to Monday’s case numbers, meaning Victoria, which recorded 845 cases, surpassed NSW, which had 787, for the first time during this outbreak.
The Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, said the extra cases had been notified.
“That software problem has been rectified by our partners in the pathology contracting area, and this, fortunately, did not have an impact on either the people concerned getting the test results,” Foley said.
There were 375 people in hospital in Victoria being treated for Covid and of those, 81 were in intensive care and 61 were on a ventilator.
Matson also said the state had growing cases in the west and south-east. She asked Victorians in the east to “remain vigilant” after cases appeared in Maroondah, Knox and the Yarra Ranges.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, confirmed the state would hit the 80% first dose milestone for those 16 years old and over on Tuesday.
“We will hit 80% sometime today,” the premier told the 3AW breakfast team.
From 11.59pm on Tuesday, “contactless” sports such as tennis, golf and boating, would be allowed and the 10km radius would be lifted to 15.
“We’re not overselling it – it’s a series of modest changes – but it gets people back outdoors doing the things that they love,” Andrews said. “There’s safe steps that can be taken at this point, and it’s all a credit to Victorians.”
Foley also announced Victorians would take part in a home quarantine pilot program, which would include some people already isolating.
The app-based pilot involved sending a daily selfie to health authorities.
Isolating Victorians would be asked to take selfies within five minutes of receiving a text alert.
The app sends people random alerts asking them to check in by taking a selfie, and then uses location technology to confirm their identity and their location.
“This app uses a downloaded picture from a smartphone, a selfie, to check in where you are meant to be when you are meant to be there,” Foley said.
“It links back to location-based technology to confirm both the place you are and your identity at the time of the alert.”
