Covid 19 coronavirus: The 'woeful' reason Victoria won't escape lockdown

Victoria's contact capabilities are still below par to what they would need to escape lockdown, says expert. Photo / 123RF

A leading disease expert has slammed Victoria's roadmap out of lockdown, saying the guidelines can't be achieved – for one reason in particular.

Epidemiologist Dr Peter Collignon has slammed the Victorian government's road map to end the state's harsh lockdown as "unattainable", especially within the tight timelines provided.

On Sunday, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews announced the lockdown would end gradually, with many things unable to open until there was an average of five or fewer new cases per day for two weeks, including fewer than five cases with an unknown source over those two weeks.

The roadmap outlines that life cannot return to normal until there had been no new cases for two weeks.

Collignon told NCA NewsWire an elimination strategy was a bad plan and Victoria's contact tracing system would make it near-impossible to achieve.

"Some of their criteria (for ending the lockdown) is less than five cases in two weeks, with no known source," he said.

"But if you look at the Victorian figures, they have still got huge numbers of undefined cases."

The epidemiologist said to be able to take the hard line on virus transmission numbers, contact tracing across the state needed to be a lot better, and test results needed to be available within 24-48 hours.

"They still don't have that," he said. "(Victoria's) contact tracing … compared to NSW their contact tracing has been woeful."