VICTORIA will enter a five-day lockdown in an effort to contain a growing outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in the state.<\/p>\n
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the lockdown will begin at 11.59pm on Thursday, with people only able to leave home for five reasons – to shop for food and essential items, provide or receive care, exercise, work or study if they are unable to from home, and to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n
Masks will be compulsory indoors and outdoors.<\/p>\n
All non-essential retail will close but essential stores like supermarkets, bottle shops and pharmacies will remain open.<\/p>\n
Cafes and restaurants will only be able to offer takeaway.<\/p>\n
Childcare and kinder will stay open but schools will close, except for a small cohort of students.<\/p>\n
The lockdown will end at 11:59pm on Tuesday, though regional Victoria will be able to reopen earlier if it is safe to do so.<\/p>\n
Mr Andrews said the state had only one chance to go “hard and fast” to defeat the highly infectious Delta variant.<\/p>\n
“I am not prepared to avoid a five-day lockdown now only to find ourselves in a five-week or a five-month lockdown,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n
It is the fifth lockdown for Victoria since the start of the pandemic and the third in 2021.<\/p>\n
It comes after Victoria recorded an additional two new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number in the outbreak to 18.<\/p>\n
Of greatest concern to authorities are an adult and a child who tested positive after attending an AFL match between Carlton and Geelong at the MCG on Saturday.<\/p>\n
COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said the cases appear to be linked to an infectious Maribyrnong man who attended the match and was seated in the MCC member’s reserve on level 2.<\/p>\n
But he said the duo were not known contacts of the infected man and it appeared to be a case of “stranger-to-stranger transmission”.<\/p>\n
“They were sitting in very different parts of the ground. There’s no obvious relationship between them. The interviews and discussions are ongoing,” Mr Weimar said.<\/p>\n
There are more than 75 exposures sites across Melbourne and regional Victoria, with some 1500 primary close contacts and 5000 secondary contacts self-isolating.<\/p>\n
Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said he was concerned lockdowns were being used as a “first response” rather than a last resort.<\/p>\n
“We can’t keep going into lockdown every time we get 10 or 12 cases in the community,” he said.<\/p>\n