Melbourne (capital of the state of Victoria, Australia) and Mitchell Shire will go into stage-three lockdown for a second time, amid continued coronavirus outbreaks.
The lockdown will return from 11.59pm Wednesday and will be in place for the next six weeks.
Melbourne is widely known and recognised as home to one of the largest Greek communities in the world, as well as being the city with the largest Greek-speaking population outside of Greece.
The stay-at-home order means people should not leave their homes except for four reasons:
- essential shopping
- giving or receiving medical care
- attending work if it cannot be done at home
- exercise.
"The public health team have advised me to reimpose stage 3 stay-at-home restrictions – staying at home except for the four reasons to leave – effective from midnight tomorrow night for a period of six weeks," Premier Daniel Andrews said at a press conference on Tuesday night.
"We have to be realistic about the circumstances that we confront," Andrews continued. "We have to be clear with each other that this is not over. And pretending that it is because we all want it to be over is not the answer. It is indeed part of the problem."
Further announcements will be announced in the coming days.
This comes as Victoria recorded 191 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest single-day increase since the beginning of the pandemic. Of that number, only 37 were linked back to known outbreaks, and none are associated with hotel quarantine.
On Monday, it was announced that the border between Victoria and New South Wales will be shut for the first time in 100 years, as of midnight on Tuesday, July 7.
At the time of writing, Australia has reported 8,755 coronavirus cases and 106 fatalities.
*Image Credit: AA
