Nearly five million Melbourne residents were ordered back into another lockdown after Coronavirus cases surged on Tuesday, July 7, in Australia’s second-largest city.
Everyone in Melbourne will be obliged to stay home from midnight on Wednesday, July 8, unless they travel to work, study, shop for food or attend medical appointments. Restaurants, cafes and bars can only have delivery service, gyms and hair salons are closed, family events are restricted to two persons and the existing school holidays are extended.
Victoria State Prime Minister, Daniel Andrews announced a six-week lockdown, warning the virus crisis is not over “we can’t pretend.”
After 191 of the 199 new cases recorded nationally on Tuesday were identified by the south-east city, the largest one-day increase since early April, Andrews said there were now too many to track properly, so restrictions were required.
“These are unsustainably high numbers,” he said. “No-one wanted to be in this position. I know there will be enormous amounts of damage that will be done because of this. It will be very challenging.”
“We have to be clear with each other that this is not over,” Andrews said. “And pretending that it is because we all want it to be over is not the answer. It is indeed part of the problem. A very big part of the problem.”
Statement from the Premier on Stay at Home restrictions for metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire. pic.twitter.com/7tc3esHZnH
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) July 7, 2020
The decision was taken hours before the busy Victoria-New South Wales border was scheduled to close for the first time in a century.
Australia has recorded nearly 9,000 COVID-19 cases, and 106 virus deaths.
