The Australian state of Victoria has recorded zero new cases of coronavirus for the first day since June 9, its health department has revealed.
It also recorded no new deaths, with Melbourne's 14-day rolling average for new cases falling to just 3.6 and regional Victoria's average at just 0.2.
Just seven mystery cases - infections without a known source of infection - remain.
The lack of new cases and deaths marks a remarkable turnaround for a state that until recently represented what could happen if COVID-19 was treated with complacency.
At its peak, Victoria was seeing hundreds of new cases and dozens of new deaths each day, belatedly prompting one of the strictest and longest lockdowns in the developed world.
Victoria's head of testing Jeroen Weimar said the lack of new cases and deaths on Monday is "one of the best outcomes we could hope to see".
"The only reason we're able to see it is because such a large number of people across the northern suburbs have taken the time since this outbreak was first identified to get tested," he said.
"We want to make sure there are no other chains of transmission out there in our northern suburbs so we can be confident we've run this one to ground, and we can give the absolute green light to the next stage of opening up."
There is now extreme pressure on State Premier Dan Andrews to ease COVID-19 restrictions to help struggling businesses, but he's delaying making a decision until results are returned showing whether a string of recent infections are linked.
Melbourne's Lord Mayor Sally Capp is calling on Andrews to reopen Melbourne's economy, saying it's time to give business owners more clarity and certainty than ever before".
"Those business owners have really just been hanging on a sense of optimism ," she said. "We had a cautious pause with really no information around that apart from wait, and what we're looking for is a cautious optimism on our way forward."
Since early August, most retail and hospitality businesses have only been able to operate on an online or takeaway basis, and until a week ago, Melbournians were only allowed to travel 5km from their homes.
Travel is still only allowed for four reasons: shopping for food or other essential items; socialising or exercise outside; permitted work or primary and secondary education; and caregiving, for compassionate reasons, or to seek medical treatment.
