Victoria announced its second-highest ever daily increases in coronavirus cases on Saturday after 108 infections were diagnosed overnight.

Premier Daniel Andrews called for the lockdown of public housing estates for at least five days due to the outbreak, meaning that some of 3,000 people in Melbourne’s nine public housing estates will be in quarantine for at least five days.

Making the announcement at 4pm on Saturday, the lockdown was “effective immediately” for the nine towers which have caused concern.

Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen said these areas with their shared facilities made transmission more likely. She said that there was concern that “there are many hundreds of people in these towers who have already been exposed to the cases that we’ve found and possibly to cases that exist and that we haven’t found.”

The premier said that at least 23 of the cases noted in recent days came from more than 12 households in the Flemington and North Melbourne public housing estates in inner Melbourne. The nine towers in question included 1,345 units, home to 3,000 tenants. Postcode 3031, which include Flemington and Kensington and 3051 of North Melbourne will be included in the list of suburbs in lockdown from midnight tonight.

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There will be 12 suburbs in lockdown as of tomorrow. This means that people can only leave their home for work or education, exercise, medical care or caregiving or shopping for supplies.

Those in nine public estates however will be in “hard lockdown” and unable to leave their residence for any reason whatsoever.

Housing estates in immediate lockdown

Flemington: 12 Holland Court, 120 Racecourse Road, 126 Racecourse Road and 130 Racecourse Road.

North Melbourne: 12 Sutton Street, 33 Alfred Street, 76 Canning Street, 159 Melrose Street and 9 Pampas Street.

The towers will be in quarantine for at least five days to test all tenants, however Premier Andrews said that it may even extend to a fortnight.

There will be 500 police overseeing the towers per shift with officers stationed on every floor.

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Residents will be unable to leave for whatsoever reason and the premier admitted that it would be “a massive logistical task” to feed them. They would be offered financial support during shutdown.

On 28 March, Victoria had recorded 111 infections, most from returning travellers. Of the 108 new infections in the last 24 hours, there were 14 linked to controlled outbreaks, 25 through routine testing and 69 under investigation.

Mr Andrews denied that the state government lost control in combatting COVID-19.