Melbourne placed under stage 4 coronavirus lockdown, stage 3 for rest of Victoria as state of disaster declared

Sweeping new restrictions, including a night-time curfew, have been imposed across Melbourne under stage four restrictions and regional Victoria will move to stage three restrictions from Thursday.

Key points:

• A state of disaster will be enforced alongside the current state of emergency
• The new restrictions will last until mid-September for all of the state
• Exercise and shopping will be limited to within 5km of the home and all school students will return to at-home learning

Premier Daniel Andrews said 671 new coronavirus cases had been detected since Saturday, with 6,322 infections now active in the state.

Seven people have died from coronavirus in Victoria in the last 24 hours, taking the state’s death toll to 123. Six of the seven cases are linked to aged care outbreaks.

There are now 385 people in Victorian hospitals, 38 of whom are in intensive care.

The state’s aged care outbreak has now grown to 1,083 active cases.

The Premier said there was an “unacceptably high” number of community transmission cases, and the state had 760 active COVID-19 infections where the source of the transmission was not known.

“Those mysteries, that community transmission, is in many respects our biggest challenge and the reason why we need to move to a different set of rules,” he said.

From 6:00pm Sunday, a state of disaster (see below) has been declared across Victoria, which will act in addition to the state of emergency.

Further restrictions targeting workplaces will be announced on Monday.

Regional Victoria will move to stage three restrictions from Thursday, meaning restaurants, cafes, bars and gyms will close from 11:59pm on Wednesday.

“That is not the position we wanted to be in but we cannot have a situation where this continues to grow and grow in regional Victoria,” Mr Andrews said.

The Premier said this was important to prevent a situation where the virus transmission was driven down in metropolitan Melbourne but continued to grow in regional parts of the state.

Source
ABC News
2/8/2020

A state of disaster is enacted by the Premier, on the advice of the Emergency Management Commissioner, if there is an emergency which “constitutes or is likely to constitute a significant and widespread danger to life or property in Victoria”.

It gives police and emergency services much broader powers to enforce new coronavirus restrictions, including the Melbourne-wide curfew every night.

It also gives authorities the ability to suspend Acts of Parliament and take possession of properties.