Victorians will enter a statewide 7-day lockdown – their sixth during the pandemic – from 8pm tonight in response to an unexpected new spate of mystery cases of COVID-19.
Premier Daniel Andrews said he was “not taking any chances” with the highly infectious Delta variant, announcing the week-long lockdown this afternoon.
“With suspected Delta cases infectious in the community, as well as a high number of associated close contacts and exposure sites, Victoria’s Acting Chief Health Officer has declared stay at home restrictions will be reintroduced,” the Premier said.
“This means from 8pm tonight, there are only five reasons to leave home: getting the food and the supplies you need, exercising for up to two hours, care or caregiving, authorised work or education if you can’t do it from home, or to get vaccinated at the nearest possible location.”
Under the new lockdown rules, shopping and exercise must be done within 5km of your home or the nearest location.
Face masks will remain mandatory indoors (not at home) and outdoors unless an exception applies – this includes all workplaces and secondary schools.
Private gatherings will not be permitted except for an intimate partner or nominated person visits. Public gatherings are not permitted. Exercise is limited to two people.
“Seven days is what we believe is necessary but let’s hope that it is accurate,” the Premier said.
“We will be working as hard as we can to make sure that come 8pm next Thursday we can be out of this.
“What’s worse than a seven day lockdown? Seven weeks. And I’m going to do everything I can to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Childcare and Early Childhood Care will remain open during the week lockdown, while schools will close, with primary and secondary school students returning to remote learning – except for vulnerable children, and the children of authorised workers who can learn on site.
Where a parent or carer indicates that a student with a disability cannot learn from home due to vulnerability or family stress, the school must provide on-site learning for that student. This will apply to students enrolled in specialist schools and students with a disability enrolled in mainstream schools.
Higher education students will also return to remote learning, except for learning programs allowed on the Authorised Premises and Authorised Workers (APAW) List.
“No Victorian wants to be in this position. We know that the Delta variant moves faster than anything our public health experts have seen before – and we know what we need to do to drive it down once again,” said Mr Andrews.
With the Wangaratta wastewater detection and the potential that regional Victorians have been exposed to COVID-19 linked to the current outbreak, restrictions will apply state-wide to keep regional Victoria safe.
There are no changes to the current arrangements for border communities.
