Millions of Victorians will remain in lockdown for another seven days as the state struggles to control its fifth coronavirus outbreak.
The entire state was plunged into a snap five-day lockdown last week after the NSW outbreak of the highly contagious Delta strain crossed the border.
The lockdown was scheduled to end at midnight but has been extended for another seven days until midnight July 27 after Victoria recorded 13 new cases on Tuesday.
Four of those cases were announced a day earlier.
This is Victoria’s fifth lockdown since the pandemic hit Australia’s shores early last year and the third one so far in 2021.
‘We want to avoid a long, lengthy challenging lockdown where you lose control of cases, we have avoided that, but we need more time,’ Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said.
He also reinstated a hard border with NSW and ordered a temporary pause on the issuing of ‘red zone’ permits.
Victoria will remain in lockdown until midnight July 27. Pictured are Melburnians on Monday
From midnight on Tuesday, Victorians returning home from north of the border must apply for a new permit.
The only ones allowed to enter will be authorised workers and those who successfully apply for a compassionate exemption.
‘That is very challenging. So, too, is an outbreak. So, too, is us getting this current incursion and outbreak sorted, only to have the next one flare up,’ Mr Andrews said.
‘Things are too unstable, too uncertain and frankly out of control from a virus point of view in Sydney.
‘We need to protect Victoria and Victorians and indeed, beyond that, the rest of the nation.’
The ban on red zone permits will be reviewed in a fortnight, and those applying for an exemption on compassionate grounds were urged to be patient while their applications were accessed.
Mr Andrews made no apologies for the new rule, which could leave Victorians south of the border stranded, and he lashed out at residents who delayed coming home.
Lockdown was extended after Victoria recorded 13 new cases on Tuesday. Pictured is a health worker at a drive-through testing clinic at Albert Park
‘For four weeks we have been saying to people from Victoria who are in Sydney and broader NSW, not the bubble, but I mean beyond that border bubble, we have been saying, “come home because the rules may change”,’ the Premier said.
‘The rules are changing today.’
The premier later wrongly claimed Sydneysiders in lockdown were free to roam NSW when they’ve been unable to leave the metropolitan area for the past three weeks.
‘They’re not locked into Sydney so they must be locked out of Victoria,’ Mr Andrews claimed.
Anyone caught crossing the border from NSW without an exemption will be put on a return flight or placed in 14 days hotel quarantine and fined $5,452.
Nine of the 13 new cases announced on Tuesday were isolating for 100 per cent of their infectious period.
But health officials insisted it was too early to lift lockdown if they want to avoid the ongoing crisis in Sydney.
They’re also keen avoid a repeat of the 112-day lockdown in Melbourne last year.
Lockdown was extended to avoid a repeat of Melbourne’s 112-day lockdown last year
Non-essential retailers in Victoria will remain closed until midnight July 27. Pictured is a deserted Bourke Street Mall on Tuesday
‘We can’t run the risk that there are cases out there that we don’t know about, chains of transmission that are not yet contained that we don’t know about, and that if we were to open up, we would see how quickly this would run, how challenging this can become in a very short space of time,’ Mr Andrews said.
A ring of steel was erected around Melbourne during last year’s extended lockdown in wake of a horror waves that claimed more than 900 lives in Victoria.
‘I will just remind you all that we had a ring of steel around Melbourne last year and it didn’t just protect country Victoria, we protected the whole country,’ Mr Andrews said.
He was sked if he would like his NSW counterpart Gladys Berejiklian to enforce something similar in Sydney
‘That is entirely a matter for them. But I don’t want to see more case coming from Sydney,’ Mr Andrews replied.
Government support for businesses crippled by the extended lockdown will be announced in the coming days.
Melbourne’s CBD was deserted on Tuesday as lockdown was extended another week. Pictured is Bourke Street
Almost 49,500 Victorians came forward for testing on Monday while another 17,083 rolled up their sleeves for the Covid-19 jab.
Two overseas-acquired cases currently in hotel quarantine were also recorded.
Almost 16,000 close contacts have been ordered to isolate for 14 days while the growing list of exposure sites has surged past 270, which includes regional venues.
Almost a third of Victoria’s locally-acquired coronavirus cases can be traced back to a sports fan who attended an AFL match, a Euro 2020 viewing party and the rugby while unknowingly infectious.
That man caught the virus from a resident of a Maribyrnong apartment complex who caught the virus from unmasked NSW removalists and went on to spread it to friends and family.
Twelve of Tuesday’s cases are linked to the current outbreaks of the Delta variant in the state, which originated in NSW, while one case remains under investigation.
All of Victoria was plunged into lockdown after a NSW outbreak crossed the border. Pictured are health workers at a testing clinic in Melbourne
A day earlier, the Premier said Victoria risked ‘a few days of sunshine’ for a prolonged lockdown if restrictions were lifted too early.
‘There is an ongoing challenge for all of us, but we will not be ready to lift these restrictions at midnight tomorrow night,’ he told reporters on Monday.
‘To do so, would not be the right thing to do. I know this is not the news people want to hear but we have to do the right thing.’
‘It would be perhaps a few days of sunshine and then a very high chance of being back in lockdown again.’
A Melbourne resident made their feelings known of what they think of the lockdown extension
Melbourne residents will now prepare to go into an extended lockdown which was due to end at 11.59pm on Tuesday
The border between Victoria and New South Wales also remains a concern for health authorities as Sydney continues to grapple with its outbreak.
There are 15,800 close contacts in Victoria with thousands connected to major exposure sites across the state.
More than 3,000 are linked to the MCG, 1,800 to AAMI Park stadium, 2,300 to Trinity Grammar and 2,700 to Bacchus Marsh Grammar.
All the new cases recorded in Victoria are linked to the current outbreaks of the Delta variant in the state, which originated in NSW.
NSW recorded 78 new cases on Tuesday, where Sydney and surrounding regions will remain in lockdown until July 30.
South Australia entered a snap seven-day lockdown on Tuesday after new Delta cases emerged after the virus crossed the border from NSW
A store keeper wearing a mask hands over an order in the deli section of the Queen Victoria Market
Source: Daily Mail