Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews reimposes lockdown in COVID-19-hit Melbourne suburbs
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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews reimposes lockdown in COVID-19-hit Melbourne suburbs

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says a stay-at-home order will be imposed on several Melbourne suburbs experiencing a spike in coronavirus cases from 11.59pm tomorrow, with 233 new cases of Covid-19 detected in Victoria since last Thursday. 64 of those were detected in the past 24 hours.

“There will only be four reasons that you are permitted to leave your house and only if you really have to. For work or school, for care or care giving, for daily exercise, for food and other essentials. They are the acceptable reasons to leave, but only if you need to,” Premier Andrews revealed.

The areas subject to the reinstated lockdown are:

Postcode 3012: Brooklyn, Kingville, Maidstone, Tottenham, and West Footscray.

Postcode 3021: Alban Vale, Kealba, Kings Park, St Albans.

Postcode 3032: Ascot Vale, High Point City, Maribyrnong, Travancore.

Postcode 3038: Keilor Downs, Keilor Lodge, Taylors Lakes, Watergardens.

Postcode 3042: Airport West, Keilor Park, Niddrie.

Postcode 3046: Glenroy, Hadfield, Oak Park.

Postcode 3047: Broadmeadows, Dallas, Jacana.

Postcode 3055: Brunswick South, Brunswick West, Moonee Vale, Moreland West.

Postcode 3060: Fawkner.

Postcode 3064: Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Mickleham, Roxburgh Park and Kalkallo.

Everyone living in any of these 10 postcodes must obey the stage 3 stay at home orders or face on-the-spot fines from police who will be actively patrolling those areas.

People who live in those postcodes but work elsewhere will be able to enter those areas for work, but not for other reasons (excepting care/compassionate, basically the same rules that applied when the whole state was under stage 3 lockdown).

“You shouldn’t be going into those post codes over the next four weeks unless it is for work and only for work that you have to do in person. You shouldn’t be going into those post codes unless it was for instance to get care or to give care….

“We have to limit the number of people who are going in and out of these post codes and sadly we have to ensure that residents, families within these post codes, do not leave their home other than for those four permitted reasons and, again, only when they need to.”

Andrews has warned that if the lockdown of the 10-hotspots does not work, then the whole state could be locked down again.

“These are extraordinary steps, these are not things we have had to do in the past but such is the nature of this virus, it is so wildly infectious that if we don’t take these steps now we will finish up in a situation than locking down ten post codes we will be locking down every postcode.”

Andrews said he also informed the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to “divert all flights away from Melbourne for the next two weeks”.

The announcements comes as the Chief Health Officer advised the Government that a number of our cases through late May and early June can be linked to an infection control breach in the hotel quarantine program.

You can read the full statement here.