Premier Daniel Andrews announces six-week Melbourne-wide lockdown

After massive spikes in daily coronavirus infections, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a six-week Melbourne-wide lockdown.

The whole city of Melbourne will be locked down in a desperate attempt to slow a surging rise of coronavirus infections.

Melburnians will only be allowed to leave their homes for four reasons — grocery shopping, care-giving, daily exercise, and school or work — Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Tuesday afternoon.

The stage-three restrictions will come into effect at 11.59pm Wednesday night and be in place for the next six weeks.

Every Melbourne local government area will be effected, including Mitchell Shire in the city’s outernorth.

“This is further than what we went last time but we find ourselves in a much more precarious situation today,” Mr Andrews warned.

“We are on the cusp of something very bad if we don’t take the right steps today.”

Mr Andrews said booze-bus style police set-ups will ensure Melburnians are not travelling into regional Victoria unnecessarily.

“There are barely any active cases in regional Victoria and we want to keep it that way,” he said.

Restaurants and cafes will return to takeaway and delivery services only, while beauty and personal services will need to close again.

Entertainment and cultural venues will also be ordered to close, along with community sport hubs.

Melburnians will also not be allowed to venture into regional Victoria for fishing or hiking trips or any other form of exercise.

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS EXTENDED

School holidays in Victoria will be extended by a week, but all VCE students will return to face-to-face learning on Monday.

Specialist school students will also return to face-to-face learning.

Mr Andrews said teachers will be back at work next week building towards students’ return to either fact-to-face learning or digital education for the following week.

“We’re going to extend the school holidays by one week, so we can get more advice from our health experts. But I want to be upfront and let parents know that a return to remote learning for these kids is a possibility, if that’s what they tell us is safest,” Mr Andrews said.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces six weeks of lockdown in Melbourne.

The state has seen a worrying upward trend in recent days, recording 191 new cases of coronavirus overnight, adding to the total of 2824 across the state.

Thirty-seven new cases were linked to outbreaks and 154 are under investigation.

To date, 438 cases may indicate community transmission, 772 cases are active in Victoria and 35 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including nine in intensive care, while 2028 people have recovered from the deadly virus.

WHERE ARE TODAY’S CASES?

• Thirteen linked to the North Melbourne and Flemington public housing towers, with the total now 69.
• Twelve new cases linked to the Al-Taqwa College outbreak, with the total now 90.
• Four new cases linked to the Northern Hospital in Epping, with the total now nine.
• One case linked to Aitken Hill Primary School in Craigieburn, with the total at 10.
• A new case confirmed in a staff member at the Assisi Aged Care facility in Rosanna. The staff member did not work while infectious. Widespread testing of staff and residents at the facility will begin today.
  

Two Victorians died from coronavirus on Monday, the same day the state recorded its highest daily number of new cases since the pandemic started. The two men, aged in their 60s and 90s, died in hospital.

Police perform random checks on drivers and passengers trying to enter the locked-down suburb of Broadmeadows. Andrew Henshaw/ NCA Newswire

Stage three restrictions were last lifted in May.

But now, Victoria sees itself disconnected from the world and other Australian states with all international flights diverted to other cities and all surrounding borders shut.

The NSW-Vic border will officially close from midnight tomorrow night, with Australian Defence Force personnel deployed to guard all entry points.

Victorians risk $11,000 fines and six months’ jail time if they attempt to cross without a valid permit.

Ten postcodes across Melbourne were placed into lockdown six days ago, while two additional postcodes were added on Saturday.

About 3000 residents living in nine public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne are not allowed to leave their homes as health authorities conduct thorough COVID-19 testing and deep cleaning.