Victoria: 7 Day Lockdown Starts Midnight Tonight
The Victorian government has imposed a seven-day state-wide “circuit breaker” lockdown starting at midnight Thursday after 26 new CCP virus cases emerged from a cluster of the Indian variant linked to South Australian hotel quarantine.
The restrictions mean people can leave their homes for only five reasons: shopping for food, attending authorised work or study, exercising (with one other person), providing care, and getting vaccinated.
The 5 km travel limit will also be reimposed for exercise and shopping, as will compulsory use of masks indoors and outdoors.
All non-essential retail will close but essential stores including supermarkets, bottle shops, and pharmacies will remain open.
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Acting Premier James Merlino said the spread of the outbreak was causing great concern, with more than 10,000 primary and secondary contacts identified
Victoria s fourth lockdown might be its cruellest yet.
While six million residents went about their lives under the impression Covid-19 was behind them, now confined to the dungeons of quarantine hotels, they have been shocked back to reality.
Victoria is once again heading for stage 3 restrictions.
While the MCG was pumping, bars and shopping centres humming, a covert wave of the virus has been spreading virtually undetected through the state for more than two weeks.
The coronavirus cluster which began in Melbourne s north at the weekend expanded to 26 infections on Thursday, as residents were told they would be plunged into a seven-day lockdown from midnight.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has called out Victorians seeking to beat their state s lockdown by rushing to cross the border in their cars and taken aim at the locked-down state over its contact tracing system.
From midnight Thursday Victoria will be in a circuit breaker lockdown until June 3 in an effort to prevent the spread of Covid after the Victorian Health Department listed 79 exposure sites - with more expected to follow.
Berejiklian questioned the effectiveness of Victoria s contact tracing system and said recent history showed positive Covid case numbers would rise exponentially if not quickly contained.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has called out Victorians seeking to beat their state s lockdown by rushing to cross the border in their cars