Regional Victoria spared lockdown as Melburnians warned to keep out of rural areas

It’s business as usual for regional Victoria, with the exception of one shire, as the Victorian Government announces a return to lockdown for metropolitan Melbourne. Details here.

Regional residents will continue to be subject to the current stage two restrictions while Melbourne is put into lockdown again.

REGIONAL Victoria has been spared from the Victorian Government’s latest lockdown as the state battles to get a grip of escalating coronavirus outbreak.

Residents in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will return to stage three restrictions from midnight tomorrow for the next six weeks – meaning people can only leave home for work, essential shopping, care and caregiving, and exercise.

A total 32 council areas are subject to the lockdown, including peri-urban councils Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Ranges and Melton.

Regional residents will continue to be subject to the current, stage two restrictions.

Another 260 defence personnel have been requested to help police place roadblocks and set up command centres to stop city residents heading into country Victoria without authorisation.

The shutdown comes as Victoria recorded another 191 coronavirus cases overnight. There are now 772 active cases across the state, including 13 in regional Victoria (seven of which are in Mitchell Shire).

“Regional Victoria has very, very few cases and vast parts of regional Victoria have no cases,” Mr Andrews said.

“This is designed to keep it that way.”

Mr Andrews said regional Victoria could find its restrictions eased further in the coming weeks – something regional communities and industry groups have been calling for.

“We’ll only be able to achieve that if we continue to contain the virus within metropolitan Melbourne and not see large outbreaks or additional cases in regional Victoria,” he said.

There had been fears all of Victoria would be subject to the lockdown, which would have come as a double blow, particularly to regional, cross-border communities who are already preparing for the closure of the Victorian-NSW border from midnight tonight.

South Australia has also this afternoon announced it would completely close its border to Victorians. Essential workers will continue to have access provided they wear masks and protective gear, and self-isolate when off-duty.

Mr Andrews said unlike the first lockdown, those under stay-at-home orders would not be able to leave Melbourne for their exercise.

“You can’t be going on a four-hour bushwalk hundreds of kilometres away from Melbourne. You can’t be going fishing outside the metropolitan area, down into regional Victoria,” Mr Andrews said.

Melburnians are also advised they must stay at their principal place of residence, and not travel to holiday homes or beach houses.

Melbourne school students will have an extra week of school holidays next week, while teachers prepare for term 3, which could return to online learning.

Regional schools are unaffected, and will return as planned.

The decision to exempt regional Victoria from the lockdown has been welcomed by country residents.

“Despite the absolute gravity of today’s announcement, it is good sense from the state government to recognise that regional Victoria has different needs,” Victorian Farmers’ Federation vice-president Emma Germano said.

“This acknowledgment will underpin greater confidence in our regional businesses and our economy.”

The VFF – alongside the Australian Industry Group, Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, regional councils, and regional MPs – have been calling for the Victorian Government to ease restrictions in the regions given the low numbers of COVID-19 cases.

Campaspe Shire mayor Adrian Weston said regional communities understood the need to manage the virus risk, but the individual circumstances of country towns should be considered.

“I think it’s prudent at the moment to maintain the restrictions that we’ve got, but if in a week or two we’ve still got no active cases in our regions, then the way it’s managed needs to be commensurate with the risk,” Cr Weston said.