Premier Daniel Andrews has ‘lock out, not down’ plan to stop Delta

Daniel Andrews says he will raise the prospect of a ‘significant reduction’ in people returning to Victoria and Australia at Friday’s national cabinet.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has urged Australia adopt a “lock out, not down” strategy to stop the highly infectious Delta strain from spreading and to prevent future lockdowns.

Mr Andrews said he would raise the prospect of a “very significant reduction” in people returning to Victoria and Australia at Friday’s national cabinet meeting.

“My view is that it is better to lock some people out than to lock everyone down,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“And the only way to pull up a Delta variant outbreak is to lock everyone down.

“We’re seeing that across the whole country. We have it within our power to dramatically reduce the number of people who are coming back just for these next three or four months, until we get a critical mass of people with a jab, protection for the community, including the vulnerable.”

People queue up in their cars for Covid testing at the Melbourne Showgrounds in Flemington. Picture: David Crosling / NCA NewsWire

Mr Andrews acknowledged slowing the rate of people returning home would be “difficult” and “inconvenient” for them.

But he said he was determined to avoid another lockdown.

“If you compare their discomfort, and the impact on them as a relatively small number of people with the damage and the pain of locking a whole city or a whole state down, there is no comparison,” he said.

“This needs to happen.

“I think we need to see a very significant reduction in the number of people that are coming back to Victoria, coming back to Australia, or being allowed to leave to go to a conference or something, and then to come back in. Like, that risk is unacceptable.

The premier added a purpose-built quarantine facility slated for Mickleham would not be built until next year and significant numbers of people were yet to be fully vaccinated.

“I’m back at work and I’m determined to do everything I can to avoid another lockdown,” he told reporters.

Premier Andrews says he can’t guarantee there won’t be a future lockdown. Picture: David Crosling / NCA NewsWire

“I can’t guarantee 100 per cent that there won’t be one, but these are steps we can take that would make that much less likely.

“And that’s what I think the Victorian community wants.”

Victoria recorded no new Covid-19 cases overnight.

It comes as the state slammed its border shut to four other states as multiple outbreaks trigger a wave of lockdowns across the country.

On Wednesday night Alice Springs was the latest to be added to Victoria’s list of banned locations after the state had already closed its border to parts of NSW, the Northern Territory, Perth and parts of Queensland.

All locations have been deemed red zones by the chief health officer.