Geelong and Surf Coast to enter seven-day snap lockdown at midnight

THE City of Greater Geelong and the Surf Coast Shire will go back into COVID-19 lockdown just before midnight tonight (Sunday, September 19) after four cases were identified in the municipalities overnight.

There are 17 active cases in the City of Greater Geelong, and two more cases were recorded in each of Geelong and the Surf Coast in the previous 24 hours.

As a result, from 11.59pm, Geelong and the Surf Coast (as well as Mitchell Shire) will be on the same level of restrictions as Melbourne and Ballarat, minus the curfew.

There will be six reasons to leave home:

• Shopping for necessary goods and services (one person from that household, once a day)
• Care and compassionate caregiving reasons including medical care
• Authorised work and permitted education (with the re-introduction of the authorised travel permit system)
• Exercise
• Outdoor social interaction, and
• Getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

You can also leave home to visit your intimate partner or single social bubble buddy.

Shopping, exercise and outdoor social interaction will be limited to 10km from your home.

Masks remain mandatory indoors and outdoors, and there will still be no visitors allowed to the home.

You have four hours a day for exercise and outdoor social interaction. You can meet with one other person, or up to four others from two households if all present have received two vaccine doses. Dependants can also join you.

The snap lockdown was announced this afternoon, at the same press conference where Victoria’s COVID-19 roadmap was revealed, and Health Minister Martin Foley said the roadmap aligned with the national plan, which was predicated on allowing “localised short sharp lockdowns” to avoid “the kind of devastation that we can see when the virus gets into families and communities”.

He said this was why the Chief Health Officer “had advised us that we need to take such strong fast short sharp action” in the three municipalities.

“But the most important message in all of that, so as to make it short and sharp and make sure that it’s no more than seven days, and with a bit of luck, less than seven days, is to get test and to get vaccinated,” Mr Foley said.

“Regional Victorians know what the show is here. They overcome emerging outbreaks before, we’ve seen is in Shepparton several times, we’ve seen it in Mildura, we’ll seen it in Colac. I hope we’re seeing it in Ballarat, which is doing an extraordinary job. And I am sure we’ll see is in Geelong, the Surf Coast, and Mitchell Shire local government areas.

“And the public health teams, together with the local public health units and local civic groups are engaging with local communities, local health services, to establish more testing and more support to make sure we use this as an opportunity to drive ahead of the virus spread in the local government areas and get those communities back to being as open as they possibly can be, and as safe as they possibly can.”

For more information on restrictions, head to coronavirus.vic.gov.au/coronavirus-covidsafe-settings.

For more information on Victoria’s travel permit system, head to coronavirus.vic.gov.au/victorian-travel-permit-system.

Both pages will be updated at 11.59pm to include the new areas in lockdown and the new travel zone designations.