Coronavirus Australia: Next Victoria suburbs to go into lockdown

More than 30 Melbourne suburbs are already locked down – now an expert has revealed the next postcodes following the same pattern.

More than 30 Melbourne suburbs are now under lockdown but some other areas could also be in the firing line after recording an increase in cases.

Victoria had 77 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday as part of the state was put under strict stay at home orders, with more than 300,000 residents in locked down suburbs only allowed to leave the house for essential reasons.

And it could just be the beginning.

A series of graphs shared to Twitter by Dr Paul Vella, a data scientist for Australian company The Royals, show an unsettling trend in multiple suburbs that aren’t under lockdown.

Whittlesea in the outer northern area of Melbourne, Wyndham in the outer southwestern parts of the city and Casey in the outer southeastern area all have a significant number of COVID-19 cases.

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I've been tracking the number of COVID-19 cases across Melbourne councils for 100 days now. Some postcodes in Brimbank, Hume, Moreland and Moonee Valley are back in lockdown but I would not be surprised if areas of Casey, Whittlesea and Wyndham also go into lockdown. #COVID19Aus pic.twitter.com/WRekEsDRZe

— Paul Vella (@drpaulvella) July 2, 2020

The data collated by Dr Vella shows the rise in cases across suburbs from March 23 to June 30.

The most recent figures from the Victorian Government show the number of cases in each of these areas have risen even more in recent days.

Whittlesea now has 65 cases, Wynham has 75 cases active cases and Casey as 110 cases.

Dr Vella told news.com.au these suburbs are following the same growth pattern seen in other areas that are now in lockdown.

“You can see from the data that Brimbank, Hume and Moreland councils are all showing exponential growth in number of cases recently,” he said.

“Moonee Valley, on the other hand, is only just starting to see a surge in cases. I can see the same pattern starting to occur in Casey, Whittlesea, Wyndham and Melton.”

Health workers speak to a local in the locked down Melbourne suburb of Brunswick West. Picture: William West/AFP

Dr Vella lives in Ascot Vale, one of the suburbs currently under lockdown.

He said that while it is difficult not being able to see his loved ones, it is necessary to keep everyone safe.

“I‘ve been working from home since March and haven’t really been out and about to see family much,” he said.

“It‘s disheartening to be able to see them then no longer able to, but it’s for the greater good to prevent the spread.”

Earlier, Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he “really hopes” Melbourne doesn‘t have to go into a wider lockdown.

Around 300,000 people in Melbourne have to return to lockdown under the threat of fines and arrest as Australia’s second biggest city attempts to control a spike in virus cases. Picture: William West/AFP

“I’m really emphasising that even though these restrictions are in place in those restricted postcodes, there’s an obligation on all of us to consider how we minimise our interactions with other people,” he said.

“And so though the stay-at-home directions apply to those restricted postcodes, all of us across Victoria have to really consider whether we need to see people in other settings, other households, including family members and friends.

“That will be the best mitigation against new postcodes being included, but those criteria that have been used for the restricted postcodes to date are the same criteria that we would apply to other postcodes, so it’s really up to all of the residents there, all of us across Victoria, to ensure that we can keep those numbers down, so that no new postcodes need to be considered for restrictions.”

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said Wednesday he was fearful of the potential for a statewide shutdown, as he urged the community to take restrictions seriously.

“If we don‘t get control of this really quickly we will end up with … a whole state shutdown,” he told 3AW.

“This is not over. This is so wildly infectious that even minor breaches of the rules can lead to this random movement of the virus around the community.”