- Victoria will enter a five-day lockdown after 18 cases of COVID-19 were linked to a family who recently moved from Sydney to Melbourne
- The lockdown begins from midnight tonight, with all Victorians asked to stay at home unless carrying out essential work, shopping, or medical care
- Brisbane recorded three new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, all linked to a 12-year-old child returning from the US to Sydney two weeks ago
- Sydney recorded 65 new cases of COVID-19 in the community on Thursday, down on yesterday’s 97 cases, Tuesday’s 89 cases and Monday’s 112 cases
- NSW Authorities expect case numbers to rise on Friday, while the Greater Sydney area will remain in lockdown for an additional two weeks
Victoria will enter a five-day lockdown after 18 cases of COVID-19 were linked to a family who recently moved from Sydney to Melbourne.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said from midnight tonight residents would be asked to stay at home unless carrying out essential work, shopping or medical care.
“This will be a hard lockdown, similar to or identical to, what we did a couple of weeks ago,” Mr Andrews said.
“If you are authorised to work then, you will be authorised to work now. If you were close then, you will be closed now.”
Schools across Victoria will close, while affected businesses were set to be offered income support from both the federal and state governments.
Premier Andrews apologised for the lockdown, but stopped short of blaming the NSW Government for failing to contain the Delta outbreak.
“Nothing about this virus is fair. Nothing about the fact that this virus has travelled from Sydney is fair. That’s just the reality we face,” Mr Andrews said.
“I apologise to all Victorians that this is necessary. But part of my job is not just making popular and easy decisions, it’s doing what must be done and at this stage, a state-wide lockdown is what’s put to me as essential by the public health experts.”
Brisbane has also extended its COVID-19 restrictions, such as mask-wearing, after a number of new cases popped up in the community.
Brisbane recorded three new cases of COVID-19 in the community on Thursday, all linked to a 12-year-old child who returned from the US to Sydney around two weeks ago.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has extended mask rules for 11 local government areas (LGAs) across Brisbane, to avoid going back into lockdown.
“So [mask wearing] is to avoid a lockdown, we just want to make sure we get on top of those cases. So, another week of wearing masks, but it is the right thing to do,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“So the LGAs are Brisbane City Council, Logan, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Noosa, Somerset, Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim.”
In Sydney, 65 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Thursday, down on yesterday’s 97 cases, Tuesday’s 89 cases and Monday’s 112 cases.
However, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she expects the daily case numbers to rise in the coming days.
“I am predicting that we will have higher case numbers tomorrow,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“Now, I want to send the following strong message to the community. Whilst the case numbers are bouncing around, we are seeing a stabilisation.
“That tells us that the settings that we have in place are having an impact. My strongest message to everybody is keep doing what you are doing.
“Keep sticking to the rules because we are seeing the impact of that, but the next challenge for us is to see a drop in the numbers, in the numbers of people infectious in the community.
“We are seeing a level of stabilisation, but we need to see those numbers drop.”
Sydney will remain in lockdown for an additional two weeks from Friday after the Premier announced another extension yesterday.