REGIONAL Victoria will entered lockdown from 1pm on Saturday. The lockdown will continue until September 2.
Premier Daniel Andrews made the announcement in his 10.45am press conference on Saturday, saying the decision to go into lockdown was “never made lightly”.
It came as Victoria recorded 61 locally acquired cases on Saturday, with another 16 to be reported in Sunday’s numbers. All 16 additional cases were in Shepparton, and were in addition to the first case reported in Shepparton on Friday, taking the city’s outbreak to a total of 17 cases. NSW reported a record 825 cases, of which 38 were in regional NSW.
Under the latest lockdown, regional Victoria is subject to the same rules as Melbourne, other than the curfew. There will be only five reasons to leave home.
Childcare and early learning centres will now only be open to vulnerable children and children of authorised workers who cannot be supervised at home.
The Shepparton outbreak is of great concern to authorities, who say the outbreak could have spread well beyond the regional city.
“At least one person travelled to Bendigo and potentially others travelled beyond,” Mr Andrews said.
“There is a very significant risk of transmission right across regional Victoria and not just in that Goulburn Valley area.”
More information on rules will be available from premier.vic.gov.au
