A PERMIT system for NSW travellers to Victoria starts from midnight Friday and arrivals from “red zone” areas are banned as Sydney’s northern beaches cluster worsens.
Health Minister Martin Foley announced the new measures would come into effect after the NSW outbreak growing to 27 cases.
Anyone who lives in or has visited the northern beaches and other high-risk locations will be banned from the state.
With the situation expected to deteriorate, Mr Foley advised Victorians not to travel to Sydney.
“It won’t be the Christmas or the holiday you were planning,” he told reporters.
There are 47 flights from Sydney scheduled to arrive in Melbourne on Friday, with health department officials conducting spot checks on those planes.
Passengers were being asked if they have visited the northern beaches or the other listed hot spots and, if so, are being directed to get tested and self-isolate immediately.
Anyone trying to enter Victoria from Sydney’s northern beaches and other NSW exposure sites (classified as red zones) from midnight Friday will not be permitted to enter.
If travellers arrive in Victoria from a red zone after midnight Friday, they will be transferred to hotel quarantine, where they will be required to remain for 14 days.
Anyone from NSW travelling from Greater Sydney (orange zone) is encouraged to get tested on arrival and self-quarantine until they receive a negative result.
People travelling from regional NSW (green zone) will be asked to monitor themselves and family for symptoms.Victoria has now gone 49 days without a locally acquired case of COVID-19.
Another infection, a returned traveller, was recorded on Friday, the eighth since the state started its new-look hotel quarantine program on December 7.
