Victorian regions to be set free from lockdown

The Andrews government will release all of regional Victoria except Shepparton from lockdown as of midnight on Thursday.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Wednesday. Picture: Ian Currie

The Andrews government will release all of regional Victoria except Shepparton from lockdown as of midnight on Thursday, vowing to apply a more targeted, localised approach to any future lockdowns outside Melbourne.

The move comes despite 1920 active Covid cases statewide and five new cases in regional Victoria on Wednesday – including one in Mildura, 540km northwest of Melbourne, and one in the Latrobe Valley, 150km east, both of which are believed to have direct links to Melbourne.

The new policy stance contrasts sharply with the government’s decision to include all of regional Victoria when the state went into lockdown on the basis of eight new cases in Melbourne on August 5.

Regional Victorians were subsequently released from lockdown on August 9, but had stay-at-home orders reimposed with just two hours’ warning on August 21 due to an outbreak now comprising 84 active cases in Shepparton, 190km north of Melbourne.

Asked why the 1.5 million regional Victorians outside Shepparton couldn’t have been granted more freedoms weeks ago given the government has now deemed a relaxation safe despite vastly higher case numbers, Premier Daniel Andrews said the government was no longer “chasing zero”.

“I’m not inviting spread, I don’t want more cases, but there is a little bit more room to move,” he said.

Mr Andrews’ comments came as his health department projected that the state’s Covid outbreak could rise to 18,000 active cases – 800 of which would require hospitalisation – within six weeks.

The projections differ from modelling in that they factor in the rate of growth of the outbreak in recent weeks, rather than taking into account future influences such as increasing vaccination rates.

They compare with the state’s current active caseload of 1920 cases, and with the current scenario in NSW where there are 26,853 active cases, of which 1136 are in hospital.

As part of the relaxation of restrictions outside Melbourne, regional Victorians will be allowed to leave their homes for any reason, with no distance limits, with offices reopening to a capacity limit of 25 per cent, hospitality venues open for up to 10 people indoors and 20 outside, and schools open for grades Prep to year 2, as well as year 12 students.

The government also said it would be launching a trial of home quarantine for just 200 of the 5000 to 6000 Victorians it estimates are stranded in NSW and the ACT, with applications to be part of the pilot program due to open on Friday and close on Friday next week.

Victoria recorded 221 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday. There were 120 people in Victorian hospitals with the virus, including 33 in ICU, of whom 15 were on a ventilator.

Of those in hospital, 87 per cent were not vaccinated, 13 per cent were partially vaccinated, and none was fully vaccinated.

More than 60 per cent of Victoria’s new cases were in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

About 200 police officers will enforce the border between metropolitan Melbourne and ­regional Victoria.