Victoria has recorded one new locally acquired coronavirus case as restrictions ease for Melbourne and regional residents.
The Department of Health on Friday confirmed just one new local infection from a primary close contact of an existing case.
Another case involves a returned traveller in hotel quarantine. The total number of active cases in the state remains at 54.
Some 35,252 Victorians were tested in the 24 hours to midnight on Thursday while 16,710 received a COVID-19 vaccine dose at state-run hubs.
It comes as Melburnians are no longer subject to the 25km travel limit and can enter regional Victoria for the first time in three weeks after the state's fourth COVID-19 lockdown.
Under the raft of rule changes from 11.59pm on Thursday, Melbourne residents can host two adult visitors plus their dependents per day and gather outdoors in groups of 20.
Masks remain mandatory indoors, but are only required outdoors when social distancing is not possible.
Businesses such as gyms and indoor entertainment venues can reopen, while density limits at offices, cafes, restaurants and pubs have increased.
In regional Victoria, the home visit cap is up to five adults plus their dependents per day, while up to 50 people can gather outdoors.
Restrictions are likely to ease again in a week's time if cases remain low.
The national COVID spotlight has shifted north as Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton declared three Sydney areas "orange zones" under Victoria's permit system amid a growing outbreak.
Those planning to enter Victoria from the City of Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra council areas must now obtain a travel permit, get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.
Professor Sutton's border reclassification call came as he came under fire for reportedly flying to Canberra for a National Health and Medical Research Council awards night on Wednesday.
It is believed he was attending the event in a work capacity, meaning he would not have contravened any restrictions.
But Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier questioned the optics.
"We can't have people coming to our own homes and yet the chief health officer, who is providing advice to the government, buzzes off to Canberra to a glitzy award night," she told reporters.
"That says a lot about the priorities of the chief health officer and of the Andrews government."
Meanwhile, an "operational error" has been blamed for a COVID-positive nurse working shifts at a second Melbourne hospital.
Victoria's testing commander Jeroen Weimar confirmed the woman, who had been treating the state's three hospitalised COVID-19 cases at Epping Private Hospital, also worked on 11 and 12 June at Epping's Northern Hospital while possibly infectious.
Staff working on a COVID ward and dealing directly with virus patients are not supposed to work elsewhere, and the error has potentially exposed an additional 27 Northern Hospital healthcare workers and five patients to the virus.
