Ballarat locked down amid new cases, rising alarm
The Andrews government locks down the regional city after repeated wastewater detections, exposure sites and four cases.
The Victorian government will lock down the regional city of Ballarat for one week after repeated wastewater detections, exposure sites and four positive cases.
From 11.59pm Wednesday night, the northwestern Victorian city will be under the same restrictions as metropolitan Melbourne.
Victoria recorded 423 new locally acquired Covid-19 infections on Wednesday as the virus spreads rapidly through the north and western suburbs.
The health department confirmed the new local cases about 9am, and also announced two new deaths.
Eight people have now died with Covid during the latest outbreak, with 828 lives lost since the start of the pandemic.
The health department also revealed another 274 mystery infections, with only 149 of the new cases linked to existing outbreaks.
More than 860 mystery cases have been recorded since Monday.
They did not say how many cases were in isolation during their infectious period.
The outbreak continues to hit Victoria’s younger population the worst with 85 per cent of the state’s active cases younger than 50.
Health department deputy secretary Kate Matson revealed authorities were particularly concerned about the spread of the virus through 10 postcodes in Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs.
At least 500 cases have been recorded in the local government area of Hume in Melbourne’s north in the past three days.
Ms Matson said the concerning suburbs were Roxburgh Park, Craigieburn (3064), Broadmeadows, Dallas, Jacana (3047), Coolaroo, Meadow Heights (3048), Campbellfield (3061), Greenvale (3059), Glenroy, Hadfield, Oak Park (3046), Fawkner (3060), Hoppers Crossing, Truganina, Tarneit (3029), Werribee, Werribee South, Point Cook (3030), Altona East, Altona Gate and Altona North (3025).
“Those 10 suburbs are where we are seeing the vast majority of our cases,” she said.
“If you live or work in these suburbs, because we have even seen some of our regional cases where people live in the regions but may work in these areas, please be extra vigilant and get tested at your first sign of symptoms.”
No new cases were recorded in hotel quarantine on Wednesday. More than 18,500 primary close contacts remain in isolation in Victoria.
There are now 4038 active cases in Victoria.
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