By Danielle Kutchel
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has announced an extension to metropolitan Melbourne’s lockdown.
With community transmission remaining at concerning levels, the Chief Health Officer made the call on Monday 16 August.
The lockdown in metropolitan Melbourne has been extended to 11.59 on Thursday 2 September.
A curfew will be imposed from 9pm-5am every night.
This will operate in much the same way as last year’s curfew with strict limitations on leaving home during those hours.
An increased police presence will enforce the restrictions.
Permits will be required to leave the house for authorised work, consistent with the arrangements that were in place last year.
Additional restrictions will also apply to the construction industry, again operating as it did last year with staffing reductions in place except for critical infrastructure and emergency repairs.
At large scale construction sites, staffing must reduce to 25 per cent or five workers on site, whichever is higher.
Authorised workers will be required to carry permits when working, and when travelling for work, from 11:59pm on Tuesday 17 August.
The permits need to be certified by an employer. Permits will be available on the coronavirus website before these directions come into effect.
Permits will also need to be carried by higher education students who are on the Authorised Provider list.
Under the strengthened restrictions, playgrounds, basketball hoops, skate parks and outdoor exercise equipment will now be closed.
People will not be able to remove their masks to drink alcoholic beverages in public.
Exercise will be limited to just you and one other person, plus dependants if they can’t be left at home.
This is similar to the current rule, but with a slight change so that if you live in a larger household such as a share house, or with extended family, you can no longer exercise with all members of your household.
The single bubble remains in place along with the five reasons to leave home: shopping for the things you need – one person per household per day, care and caregiving, exercise, authorised work and study, and to get a vaccine.
The increased restrictions come after a number of law-breaking events over the weekend, including an engagement party attended by more than 50 people and a pub crawl through Richmond.
Premier Daniel Andrews decried the “sh**y” choices made by some in the community but stressed that these behaviours were not representative of everyone.
He acknowledged the anger in the community regarding the city’s sixth lockdown, but said the rules were necessary to drive down the virus and urged everyone to adhere to them to get out of lockdown sooner.
“We all [have to] find it within ourselves to get through this and drive these numbers down,” the premier said.
According to State Government figures, the average exposure days – the number of days an infectious person is out in the community – was 0.61 and declining at this point of Melbourne’s previous outbreak.
In the current outbreak the average exposure days is 1.8, meaning cases diagnosed yesterday were infectious in the community for a total of 15 days, compared to 0 for the same point during the last outbreak.
Authorities are also concerned about the number of mystery cases the state is facing, which indicate the virus is moving around undetected in the community.
Mr Sutton said the strengthened restrictions would buy the state time while vaccination levels increased.
“We can get there – the finish line, the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
