Victoria will be plunged into a seven day lockdown from tonight after the state’s Covid-19 outbreak rose significantly overnight.
One of the 12 cases confirmed by the Department of Health was reported on Tuesday, meaning there were 11 new infections recorded overnight.
From 11.59pm tonight all of Victoria will move into lockdown restrictions, with just five reasons to leave home, including getting food and supplies, authorised work, care and caregiving, exercise for up to two hours each day with one other person, and getting vaccinated.
The lockdown will be in place until 11.59pm on June 3, with the following restrictions also coming into effect:
• You must remain within a 5km radius of your home when shopping or exercising, unless your closest shops are further away.
• Masks must be worn everywhere other than your home, both indoors and outdoors, unless an exemption applies.
• There are to be no visitors to your home unless it is an intimate partner.
• Single bubbles will be permitted, with people living alone allowed to make a bubble with one other person.
• Public gatherings will be banned.
• Restaurants, pubs and cafes can provide takeaway only.
• Essential retail, so supermarkets, food stores, petrol stations, banks, bottle shops and pharmacies, other retail stores can provide click and collect.
• Schools will move to remote learning, except for vulnerable children and children of authorised workers.
• Childcare will remain open.
There are now 34 active coronavirus cases across the state, with 26 of those linked to the new cluster. More than 40,000 test results were received overnight.
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The announcement comes after infections spiked in the state on Wednesday, with six new local cases being linked to the Whittlesea cluster.
Health authorities have repeatedly warned that number could continue to grow.
The number of sites visited by Covid-19 positive cases has risen to 79, with a McDonald’s, Anytime Fitness gym and Kmart among the new venues.
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Chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton said authorities had discovered “multiple generations of transmission” over the last 48 hours. So far, 301 primary close contacts of confirmed coronavirus cases have been identified, with 80 of those returning negative results.
“The exposure sites that they generate, how many close contacts they might have and how long they have been in the community – they are all factors we need to consider,” he told reporters.
A raft of new restrictions were initially introduced across greater Melbourne at 6pm on Tuesday, including a limit of five visitors per day for private households, a limit of 30 people for public gatherings and mask-wearing required indoors, including in workplaces, for everyone aged 12 and over unless an exemption applies.
Mr Merlino warned this morning that he could not “rule out taking some further action”, while a number of experts, including Melbourne University epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely, foreshadowed the prospect of tougher measures.
Speaking to 3AW, Prof Blakely said the situation has, in a short period of time, “really escalated to become quite concerning” and things were now “really serious”.
“I’m expecting that we will see significant increases in restrictions announced soon. We do unfortunately have a problem on our hands,” he told the radio program.
Authorities still hunting down ‘missing link’
A man in his 60s, who was among the five cases announced on Tuesday, is believed to be the earliest known infection in the new outbreak.
The man, referred to as case 5, developed symptoms on May 17, with authorities believing he may have been infectious for almost 10 days before presenting for testing.
Later in the day it was announced four family contacts of the man also tested positive. He is also believed to have transmitted the virus to the first person discovered in the cluster, a man in his 30s.
That man then passed the virus on to three close family contacts spread across two households in Whittlesea, including a man in his 70s, a woman in her 70s and a preschool-aged child.
Everyone in the new cluster has been confirmed as having the Indian variant of the virus.
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Genomic testing has found the new infections are “closely linked” to a case from a few weeks ago that originated in South Australia.
Earlier in the month a man tested positive to the virus after becoming infected while undergoing hotel quarantine in South Australia and then flying into Melbourne and returning to his home in Wollert.
But health authorities believe there could be a “missing link” between this case and the new cluster, though so far none of the new cases have been found to be linked to any exposure sites from the Wollert case.
Professor Sutton confirmed authorities are still trying to determine how this new cluster is linked to the Wollert case.
“All of the cases in this cluster are linked so we understand the relationships between them and we have an explanation for how transmission has occurred,” he said.
“We might see new people coming forward and testing positive that either tell us what the missing link is with the Wollert case.”
Fears for NSW as exposure sites grow
There are increasing fears Victoria’s Covid-19 outbreak could leak across the border into NSW.
NSW Health issued an alert after a sporting club based in Tooleybuc, in the western Riverina region of NSW, was linked to the growing Victorian cluster.
The Health Department said members of the club attended a sporting event in Cohuna, Victoria on Saturday, May 22 between midday and 5pm, which was also attended by a confirmed virus case.
Both Tooleybuc and Cohuna are Murray River towns near the borders of their respective states.
The Tooleybuc Sporting Club is just a 140km drive south to Cohuna, which is on the Murray Valley highway almost 300km north of Melbourne.
“Anyone who attended is requested to immediately self-isolate and await further advice from NSW Health,” health authorities said.
“NSW Health is working to set up increased capacity for testing in the area and thanks the community for their co-operation.”
The warning comes after it was revealed on Wednesday that two close contacts of virus cases had crossed the border in to NSW.
The two people alerted NSW Health after being contacted by Victorian contact tracers and were immediately tested and placed in isolation, with both contacts returning a negative result.