Victoria’s lockdown extended: Statewide restrictions to remain beyond Tuesday

The entire state will remain confined past Tuesday, with the next 24 hours crucial as authorities make a call on the lockdown’s end date.

Victorians will be confined to their homes for several more days, with an extension of the state’s snap lockdown confirmed.

The shutdown is expected to be extended until at least Friday, and potentially next Wednesday.

Health chiefs and senior ministers will make the final call in the next 24 hours, with Premier Daniel Andrews saying the state was not in a position to lift the lockdown on Tuesday night.

The five-day shutdown – the state’s fifth lockdown since the pandemic started – was due to end at 11.59pm Tuesday.

“I know this is not the news that people want to hear,” he said.

“This lockdown will be on for as long as it’s needed. It will be on for as long as needed. Not a moment longer.”

The Premier said he could not advise on the rules or time frame that would apply to the lockdown.

But he said the changes would be confirmed as early as possible on Tuesday.

The state recorded 13 new cases on Monday.

Some health authorities are wanting to leave the decision until as late as possible and others arguing businesses and schools need early warning.

But there are still major concerns over potential “super-spreading” exposure sites such as the England-Italy Euro final party at the Crafty Squire, the Carlton-Geelong game at the MCG, Wallabies-France game at AAMI Park, and six trams on routes 48, 72, 75 and 109.

One source close to the health department said: “Everyone has a very cautious mindset. We don’t want to jeopardise the long-term response to this (the outbreak).”

One source said on Sunday night: “The discussion today was only ‘Where are the cases? Where are the exposure sites? What do we need to do?

Another said: “It is acknowledged the lockdown will be extended, it’s just no call has been made on the length.”

Although regional Victoria had hoped for an early reprieve, Mr Andrews said it was “simply not possible”.

He defended the statewide shutdown on Sunday, saying: “If we’d been open, we wouldn’t be talking about 40, 50, 60 cases — we’d be talking about an altogether bigger number and an altogether longer lockdown.”

The Premier said no rule changes for regional Victoria would be made after two positive cases were identified in Mildura, highlighting how quickly the virus can spread.

Victoria’s Bass Coast was declared a commonwealth hotspot after several exposure sites on Phillip Island allowing anyone left without work to claim federal disaster payments.

Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chief Alexi Boyd said any extension of the lockdown would be “devastating” for Victoria’s small business sector.

There are a rapidly growing number of exposure sites across the state. Picture: Nicole Cleary

“We don’t have anything else left on the balance sheet, there are no more cash reserves left,” Ms Boyd said.

“Our members are just keeping their heads above water covering day to day expenses.”

Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Paul Guerra said the state needed to snap out of lockdown as quickly as it entered it.

Mr Guerra said the events, hospitality and entertainment industry had less than a week to recover from the lockdown four.

The future of the state’s lockdown is in the hands of people who attended exposure sites getting tested, Professor Catherine Bennett said.

“(If) they haven’t come forward for testing, then they could have already infected someone else,” she said.

Asked whether the growing outbreak in NSW, which recorded 105 new cases on Sunday, Mr Andrews said: “I would have thought they were in it for the long haul”.

The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the events, hospitality and entertainment industries had been hard hit. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui

“That is something we have to live with, something that we have to guard against for quite some period of time,” he said.

“The sooner they get their wave, their outbreak under fundamental control the less likely it is that cases come here.”

It comes as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was spotted maskless as she waited outside a local cafe for her boyfriend to collect drinks, just hours after a new health order demanding Sydneysiders mask up “near” a cafe came into effect.

Questions about a lack of clarity in the health order and what constitutes “near” have been raised, with the Premier 7.93m metres from the cafe and 9.27m from the coffee machine but only applying her mask after she spotted a photographer.

In a statement last night, the Premier said she had not broken a health order and that the photos were taken from “different angles”.

Originally published as Victoria’s lockdown extended: Statewide restrictions to remain beyond Tuesday