Melbourne’s lockdown has been extended for another week, having previously been due to end at 11:59pm Thursday.
However, restrictions will be eased in regional Victoria from 11:59pm Thursday. This means stay-at-home orders will no longer apply for regional Victoria, meaning there are no limits on how far you can travel through regional Victoria or why you’re travelling, as long as you aren’t visiting Melbourne. However, gathering limits will stay the same, with groups of up to 10 people allowed to meet outside.
In Melbourne, the travel restriction for the five approved activities will be expanded from five to ten kilometres and year 11 and 12 students will return to in-class learning.
The five accepted reasons to leave home are to buy essential supplies, participate in approved work, to give or receive care, exercise or get vaccinated.
The state’s outbreak has grown to more than 60 cases and acting Premier James Merlino has warned that the variant currently spreading through the state is “quicker and more contagious than we have ever seen before.”
“If we let this thing run its course, it will explode. We have to run this to ground, because if we don’t, people will die,” Mr Merlino continued.
New South Wales is also on high alert, as one confirmed case had travelled to NSW’s South Coast, with exposure sites in Jervis Bay, Goulburn and Vincentia.
NSW Health has issued an alert for people to get tested if you have any symptoms, “no matter how mild.”
Each state’s current restrictions with Victoria
Western Australia
- Travel from Victoria into WA is not permitted
- Exemptions are listed here
- Exempt travellers must get a test on arrival and again on day 11, as well as self-quarantining in suitable premises for 14 days.
South Australia
- Travel from Victoria into South Australia is not permitted
- Essential travellers and permitted arrivals must self-quarantine for 14 days, test on days 1, 5 and 13 and wear a mask in public
- Exemptions include returning residents, persons relocating and domestic violence arrivals
Queensland
- Queensland has declared of Victoria a COVID hotspot
- Anyone who has been in Victoria over the past 14 days or since Friday May 28 is not allowed to enter Queensland. If exempt you must undertake a mandatory 14 day hotel quarantine in Brisbane
New South Wales
- NSW recommends that you avoid non-essential travel to Victoria
- If you entered NSW from Victoria after 4pm Thursday May 27, you must follow stay at home rules
Northern Territory
- Travel from Victoria is not permitted
- Anyone who has visited any Victoria exposure sites before 27 May or has been in Victoria since May 12 and a new exposure site that they have visited gets announced, must travel directly to a suitable place of quarantine and quarantine for 14 days
Tasmania
- If you have been to Victoria in the 14 days before arriving you not permitted to enter unless you have obtained an exemption
- If you qualify as an essential traveller and have suitable premises to undertake a 14 day quarantine, you may enter Tasmania
ACT
- If you left Victoria after 11:59pm on Thursday 27 May and entered the ACT you must stay home unless exempt for any of these reasons
- If you’re a returning resident you must comply with stay at home requirements and non-residents coming from Victoria must not enter unless an exemption is obtained
