Victoria records more Covid-19 cases as over 30 suburbs head into lockdown

July 1, 2020

About 300,000 people have been ordered to stay home for at least a month in an effort to stamp out the virus.

Another 73 coronavirus cases have been recorded in Victoria as more than 30 suburbs head into a localised lockdown.

Three of the cases are from hotel quarantine, nine are associated with known and contained outbreaks, 19 were found through routine testing and 42 remain under investigation by the public health team, Premier Daniel Andrews says.

Dozens of suburbs with more than 300,000 residents reenter lockdown from midnight as a result of the community outbreak and two weeks of double-digit rises in case numbers.

Twenty-two fixed site, drive-through and mobile testing sites are already operational.

"There will be 12 new sites that will be dedicated testing locations across all of those postcodes that have been locked down from midnight tonight," Mr Andrews said today.

"This is not over. It won't be over for a long time and the best and most important thing that we can all do, whether we are in one of these hot spot postcodes or not, is to follow the rules."

About 54,000 homes have been reached and 113,000 people tested in the week since a doorknocking information blitz started in Melbourne's northern and western suburbs following the outbreak.

The majority of Victoria's new cases are due to community transmission, prompting Mr Andrews to reintroduce stay-at-home orders for 10 postcodes from Thursday until at least July 29.

Those postcodes are: 3038, 3064, 3047, 3060, 3012, 3032, 3055, 3042, 3021, 3046. Much like earlier stage three restrictions, residents of the postcodes will only be able to leave their homes for four reasons: to shop for food and supplies, to receive or provide care, to exercise and study or work if they can't do so from home.

"Ultimately, if I didn't shut down those postcodes, I'd be shutting down all postcodes and I don't think we want to get to that point," Mr Andrews said.

Victoria is getting clinical support from other governments to help in its fight.

As Wilson Longhurst reports other options could be explored.

Thirty clinical staff are coming from South Australia and about 40 Queensland nurses are on their way.

NSW, Queensland, WA, SA and Tasmania are also providing contact tracing and pathology help.

But Victorians from the hot spots have also been warned if they enter NSW, they could be slapped with an $11,759 fine or six months' jail.

"Victorians living in virus hot spots have to take the Victorian and NSW health orders seriously and should be very aware that NSW will impose penalties if they seek to leave hot spot suburbs," NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said in a statement.

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