Lockdown looms for Victoria as Delta spreads

The Victorian Premier has flagged further strengthening Melbourne’s lockdown and tightening restrictions in the regions as a cluster emerges 190km north of Melbourne.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

Premier Daniel Andrews has flagged strengthening Melbourne’s already hard lockdown and tightening restrictions in the regional Victoria, as the Delta variant spreads across the city and a cluster emerges in the state’s north.

Ministers and public health ­officials are considering if more steps can be taken to curb the spread after more than half the 55 cases recorded on Friday were ­infectious in the community and 12 cases were detected in Shepparton.

The Weekend Australian understands a statewide lockdown, further limits on exercise and time allowed outdoors, restrictions on childcare and the full standing down of the construction industry are being discussed.

On Friday night a Victorian government spokeswoman said “all options are on the table” and said community sporting leagues in the regions had been asked to cancel their activities over the weekend.

Mr Andrews urged people to follow lockdown rules over the weekend, warning case numbers would explode, hospitals would be overrun and that Melbourne could go the way of Sydney if compliance with restrictions did not improve.

“It’s not a tipping point, like we are right on the edge of this getting away from us,” he said.

Under current restrictions, Melbourne is under a 9pm-5am curfew while schools, most workplaces and playgrounds are closed and people must stay within 5km of their primary residence.

Regional areas were released from lockdown on August 9, but on Friday Mr Andrews refused to rule reintroducing restrictions.

He urged Melburnians to comply with lockdown after last weekend saw a pub crawl in Richmond and people drinking on High St, Northcote, in the city’s north.

As well, video of an engagement party attended by 69 people in St Kilda East the previous weekend was widely reported and condemned.

“If we have a weekend this weekend like last weekend, next week it will be like Sydney,” Mr Andrews said.

“Simple as that. This will get away from us. We’ve got too many mystery cases out there; we need people to come forward and get tested when they have symptoms, not a day or three days later.”

On Friday Shepparton detected 12 positive cases across two households as the immediate and extended family of a man in his 30s underwent testing.

In the northern Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows, 13 cases were linked to the MyCentre Multicultural Youth Centre.

Covid-19 logistics chief Jeroen Weimar said one of the cases first began experiencing symptoms on August 11 and that chains of transmission were beginning to widen across Melbourne.

“This is now something that genuinely impacts all Melburnians,” he said.

Excluding the Shepparton outbreak, Victoria recorded 55 cases of Covid-19 on Friday.

Acting chief health officer Ben Cowie said one in four of the state’s 349 active cases were children under the age of 10, while there were 72 cases in youths aged between 10 and 19.

“This is a completely different epidemiological pattern than what we’ve seen previously,” Professor Cowie said.

Among the remaining cases seen on Friday, 14 were day-13 tests linked to the Al-Taqwa College in Truganina in Melbourne’s west while three are linked to Glenroy west, four are linked to the Newport Football Club and two are linked to an Newport gym.

Six cases are linked to St Kilda, four are linked to the Pizza Central restaurant in Malvern and one is linked to the Lygon St public housing tower.

Two cases are linked to Altona North and there are single cases in Doncaster East, Pakenham, Port Melbourne, Brunswick and Shepparton.

One case is a cabin crew member who lives at Tullamarine who worked in South Australia, Queensland and NSW.