People queue to be tested for COVID-19 at a pop-up clinic in Heidelberg West on Sunday.Credit:Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
The family toldThe Age the department had sent an email that said:"Your family has met the Department of Health and Human Service's (sic) criteria to end isolation."
On Monday,Victoria’s COVID-19 testing chief Jeroen Weimar said there may have been a"misunderstanding"around information given to the family,but he denied information given to them was wrong.
He said while the state government would continue to simplify communication with positive cases,"we do not accept that in this case or in any other case that we have not been clear about our expectations of people about what those isolations and quarantine means".
"We absolutely accept there may have been a misunderstanding,but the information we provided is accurate and to the point,"he said."I am not going to sit here and say we are not explicitly clear about what is happening with individual members of a household."
Monday is the seventh day in a row that no more deaths from coronavirus have been confirmed in Victoria – the longest the state has gone without a death from the virus since early June.
The state's 14-day rolling case average is 3.8 and the number of mystery cases confirmed in Victoria over the past fortnight has fallen to seven,down from nine on Sunday.
La Trobe University epidemiologist Hassan Vally said Victoria was in a very strong position to reopen,with a contact-tracing system that had demonstrated its ability by bringing the northern suburbs outbreak under control.
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"We’re in a very strong position. We have got zero cases – that really says it all,"he said."It’s demonstrated we can bring these clusters under control with our public health response."
Professor Vally said the announcements on Monday – largely centred on reopening retail – were unsurprising,but were also"sensible and cautious".
Mr Andrews said he was optimistic Victorians could keep another wave of COVID-19 at bay.
He said further restrictions would ease on November 8 at 11.59pm,"barring a day,or a series of days,we have very high case numbers".
He said the state was now moving towards COVID-normal."If we all play a part,I'm confident we can keep this at bay. That doesn't mean zero every single day. There will be cases. There will be outbreaks,"he said.
"The vast majority of Victorians own these numbers,they've delivered these numbers because they've stayed the course and have done everything that has been asked of them."
He said workers returning to offices was probably"still some way off"because it was high-risk.