Victoria will be plunged into a seven-day lockdown from 8pm tonight.
Premier Daniel Andrews claimed the emergence of two mystery cases meant the state had no option but to lock down for seven days. He said “the alternative is we let this run that gets away from us, and our hospitals will be absolutely overwhelmed. Not hundreds of patients but thousands.”
The same restrictions will apply as previous lockdowns in regards to remote learning. There will be a 5km bubble, mandatory masks and the closure of all hospitality, non-essential retail and gyms. Schools will be closed.
Victoria’s acting chief health officer, Professor Ben Cowie declared that stay-at-home restrictions would be reintroduced.
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Regional Victoria will also be in lockdown as COVID-19 fragments had been found in wastewater throughout the state.
“We have a sewerage test that has detected COVID-19 in the northeast, Wangaratta sewerage test has pinged, firstly positive, then it went negative, now it’s gone positive again,” he said. “We have some reason to believe there is COVID-19 in that community or has been in that community.”
The premier said he could not guarantee that the harsh restrictions would end after seven days.
“I don’t want to be foreshadowing or giving people false hope that on Monday I’m gonna be standing here saying it’s all fine and we will open up again, and I think that is not going to happen. Seven days is what we believe is necessary, but let’s hope that it is accurate. We will be working as hard as we can to make sure that come 8pm next Thursday we can be out of this,” he said.
