The Victorian Government has announced that the state’s five-day lockdown will be extended.
Addressing media this morning, Premier Daniel Andrews said an extension of the state’s five-day lockdown was necessary to avoid a surge in cases of the highly contagious Delta strain.
“We will not be ready to lift this lockdown at midnight tomorrow night,” the Premier said.
“To do so would not be the right thing to do…it would perhaps be a few days of sunshine but then we’d be back in lockdown again.”
The Premier did not provide a timeframe for the state coming out of lockdown, saying meetings will be held to determine the rules and timelines for lifting the current restrictions in place.
The decision comes as the state records additional cases of COVID-19’s highly contagious Delta strain, which has already led to the temporary closure of several schools in Melbourne.
In the 24 hours to 8pm last night, Victoria recorded 13 new local cases out of 54,839 tests. There are now more than 200 exposure sites and 10,000 primary close contacts.
The new cases include another student from St Patrick's Primary School in Murrumbeena and three staff members and a student from Trinity Grammar in Kew. There were also and three staff members and a student from Bacchus Marsh Grammar who tested positive.
This morning, it was also confirmed that a positive case attended South Melbourne Primary School last week. Western Health said the person was unaware they were infected when they went to the school on July 15.