The Informer: That's hope wafting through regional Victoria

It's the news that today's daily average case numbers for regional Victoria have dropped below five to 4.9 that's done it.

According to the Victorian Premier's roadmap for easing restrictions revealed on Sunday, there needs to be a fortnightly average of fewer than five cases in all of regional Victoria and zero unknown source transmissions to trigger any further easing of bans.

There are still a number of active cases - in Bendigo and Horsham to name two regional centres - but today is still a milestone day of sorts. Well, hopefully it marks some sort of beginning at least.

While we're talking lockdowns, have you heard about the University of Oxford Stringency Index? No, maybe not.

The university is comparing nations' lockdown measures - which is a bit like measuring the best Beatles song according to nationality.

The "Stringency Index" is based on nine indicators including school closures, workplace closures, and travel bans. If policies vary within the country, the index relies on the strictest sub-region. So in Australia's case, Victoria.

Australia has shot up the global rankings in the past few months.

In April we were ranked 144 on average, 127 in May, 129 in June, 52 in July and we rocketed into the top 30 at 27 in August. Read more about it here.

Meanwhile on a more local level, the inquiry into Victoria's hotel quarantine program continued and heard the program was, in entirely non-inquiry terms, a hot mess.

Organised in just two days, the program ultimately failed to meet the needs of returned travellers and, counsel assisting the inquiry Ben Ihle said, set up so quickly it had "built-in complications", which became a "source of confusion and lack of clarity" for those involved.

If you're so inclined you can watch previous days hearings at the inquiry right here or hang on until Thursday when it resumes at 10am.

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