Australia’s Victoria state will start easing coronavirus restrictions from Friday night, after authorities deemed new locally acquired cases detected for the first time in a week in the state will not pose any public health risk.

Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, reported two new cases in people placed in quarantine after they were identified as close contacts of existing cases.

“They have been in hotel isolation because of their household circumstances, they had sought to isolate away from other family members [...] so they pose no risk to public health more broadly,” state Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters.

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