MELBOURNE: Australia’s second most populous state Victoria on Sunday reported two new locally acquired Covid-19 cases, with the low number raising hopes that a hard lockdown in the state’s capital Melbourne will be eased on June 10.

Two other new cases were reported on Sunday by an aged care home, but the state had yet to confirm them.

The four new local infections bring Victoria’s total cases to 74, including two recovered cases, in the outbreak that began in late May after a man who tested negative in hotel quarantine in Adelaide returned to Melbourne and tested positive.

The daily rise was down from five new cases reported on Saturday. All four new cases were linked to existing clusters.

Officials said that Melbourne’s restrictions would probably be eased on Thursday.

“If we can, we will lift it early, but at this stage our expectation is that it will continue to Thursday,” Victoria’s deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng told reporters.

Victoria has accounted for two-thirds of the more than 30,100 Covid-19 cases and 90% of the 910 deaths in the country since the pandemic began last year.

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