Parts of regional Victoria freed from lockdown as Melbourne lockdown extended for another week

Melburnians will be forced into another week of lockdown – but pending some negative results, parts of Victoria may see their restrictions eased tomorrow.

Melburnians will be forced to endure another week of lockdown but regional Victorians will enjoy some relaxed freedoms from Friday.

Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino said the government was left with “no choice” but to extend the lockdown for Melbourne in light of the highly infectious strain.

“Given the cases that we’ve had and that we’re still seeing, the chief health officer had no choice but to put this advice to government and the government had no choice but to accept it,” he said.

“If we don't do this ... this thing will get away. This variant of concern will become uncontrollable and people will die.”

Regional Victorians will see their restrictions eased on Friday, pending testing on wastewater in various country towns.

“We do want to ease restrictions in regional Victoria ... however, with wastewater detections in Bendigo, Axedale and new exposure sites in Anglesea, we are in the process of re-testing a number of people who may have been exposed. That work is happening today,” Mr Merlino said.

The state’s public health team will continue its testing to give the government confidence to ease restrictions in the regions.

Victorian Acting Premier James Merlino has extended the state’s lockdown. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

If those tests come back negative, the five reasons to leave home will be removed for regional Victorians and the travel limit will also be removed.

“You can only travel to Melbourne for a permitted reason and you must follow Melbourne restrictions once you are there,” Mr Merlino said.

Other restrictions that will ease in regional Victoria from 11.59pm on Thursday, June 3 include:

• Outdoor gathering limits can occur with up to 10 people, gatherings are no longer limited to two people, and children under 12 months are not included in that cap.

• Food and hospitality will be open for seated service only, with a cap of 50 people per venue, subject to density requirements of one per four square metres.

• Retail can open and personal services such as beauty and tattooing can resume for services where masks can remain on.

• Religious gatherings and ceremonies are permitted for 50 people plus one faith leader indoors or outdoors.

• Gathering limits for weddings will be 10 people and for funerals, 50 mourners.

• Junior outdoor community sport will return and adults will be able to resume training outdoors.

• Outdoor pools, including swimming classes can operate with a limit of 50 people with a density quota of one per 4 square metres.

• Outdoor seated entertainment, seated and unseated will have a patron cap of 50 people or 50 per cent of the venue’s seating capacity, whichever is lower.

Mr Merlino also imposed another rule relating to ID checks.

“We’ve also seen previous examples of people who left Melbourne, broke the rules and took the virus with them,” he said.

“We do not want to see that happen again, particularly with this variant of concern that is this outbreak.

“So to that end, businesses that are open in regional Victoria but closed in Melbourne, so restaurants and beauty, for example, must check the IDs of everyone they serve.

“We know it is an extra ask on staff and on customers, but ultimately this is about keeping your community safe.”

Much concern rests on the specific Indian variant that has been spreading throughout the community and forcing its way through aged care and countless sites in the state.

Experts have warned the pandemic is worse today than it was a year ago with new variants emerging regularly that are more transmissible and resistant to vaccines.

Six new locally acquired Covid-19 cases were confirmed today, bringing the state’s cluster to 60.

With positive cases continuing in the state, senior ministers met health officials for a “high-level briefing” surrounding the situation and the possibility of extending the state’s fourth lockdown on Tuesday night.

The Melbourne lockdown is due to end next Friday, just before the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, however Mr Merlino said restrictions on travel between the capital and regional Victoria would still apply.

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People exercise in Melbourne on Tuesday, the fifth day of the lockdown. Picture: William West

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Earlier, Victoria’s deputy opposition leader Georgie Crozier demanded the government give the public information on its reasoning for extending the lockdown.

“Release the health advice, Victorians deserve info,” she said.

The news came at the same time NSW Health revealed a positive case from Victoria visited a number of sites, sparking more fears the virus may have spread across states.

‘There’s more virus in the air’

The worry for officials is how quickly people are becoming infected after just “brushing past” strangers with the virus.

Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar said on Tuesday at least four of the state’s 54 locally transmitted cases have come from “fleeting” contact between Victorians.

“What we’re seeing now is people are brushing past each other in a small shop, they are going to a display home, they are looking at photos in a Telstra shop,” he said.

“This is relatively speaking, relatively fleeting. They do not know each other’s names, and that is very different from what we have been before.

“This is stranger to stranger transmission.”

Professor MacIntyre told the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas on Tuesday the variant spreading in Melbourne is “more transmissible” and “more contagious” and that it has a particular mutation that’s “more likely to make it more vaccine resistant than that strain, so that’s a big concern”.

“There’s more virus in the air, we know that SARS Covid-2 is airborne so an area where someone has been indoors might be more at risk with this particular virus.

“The biggest risk is breathing in the virus through contaminated air indoors, in settings that are poorly ventilated.

“The stakes have been raised with this variant because we know its more transmissible.”

“The pandemic is worse today than it was a year ago and there are new variants emerging regularly. They are particularly more transmissible and resistant to the vaccines we have available, to different degrees, so the stakes are much higher.”

Mr Sutton had earlier hinted an extension was likely after describing the spread of the virus as “concerning”.

“We’ve gone from a single case of the beginning of the month to 4200 primary close contacts,” he said.

“It has been a rapidly moving virus and the transmission that has occurred in those high-risk settings has been very substantial.

“So we have to take (lockdown) as a day-by-day prospect.

“With more numbers today coming through and those really concerning settings, especially in aged care, we are neck-and-neck with this virus and it is an absolute beast.”