- 73 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Victoria in the last 24 hours
- Around 20,000 tests were conducted in the state yesterday, amid a big spike in infections over the last two weeks
- The majority of the new cases are believed to have come from hotspot suburbs north of Melbourne
- Those suburbs will be put back in stage three lockdown conditions from midnight tonight
- Premier Daniel Andrews also warned the entire state could be placed back into lockdown if the spike isn’t contained
Victoria has recorded 73 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, after a testing blitz was conducted in hot-spot suburbs, which will be locked down tonight.
In comparison, 64 cases were recorded in the state yesterday, while 75 were recorded on Monday.
Around 20,000 tests were conducted yesterday in the suburbs found to contain high infection rates of the coronavirus.
A full list of those suburbs can be found here.
New lockdown commences
Residents living in those areas will revert back to stage three lockdown conditions from 11.59 pm AEST.
This means residents in the affected suburbs will be required to stay home, unless they have an exemption.
Exemptions are available for those attending work or school, completing essential-shopping or daily exercise, or those needing care or who are care-givers.
The Victorian Premier warned the local lockdown could extend state-wide if the spike in cases wasn’t brought under control.
“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,” he said.
Flights diverted
Daniel Andrews also announced yesterday international flights, whose passengers required quarantine, would be diverted from Melbourne.
It comes after a number of COVID-19 cases were confirmed to have come from hotel quarantine staff who were breaching containment rules.
Meanwhile, Victoria wasn’t the only state to record new COVID-19 cases in Australia.
NSW announced it had found 14 new cases in the state in the last 24 hours.
All of them relate to international guests arriving back from overseas, and all of the infected travellers are in quarantine.