Victoria has recorded 12 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours as the state braced for a likely lockdown to contain Melbourne’s growing COVID-19 outbreak.
The Victorian government is finalising details for a lockdown it will announce later on Thursday morning. Health and government sources said public health advice would recommend a lockdown of at least seven days in response to the growing cluster.
The public health team was likely to provide advice that the length of the shutdown should be between 7 and 10 days, a source close to government confirmed.
Cabinet ministers on Wednesday agreed on the principle of a lockdown and on Thursday morning they were ticking off on final plans, with an announcement likely to be made later in the day.
Senior cabinet ministers were locked in meetings ahead of a wider cabinet meeting at 9.30am.
The ministers are deciding on details including what kinds of restrictions should be in place on businesses and movement of individuals.
State authorities administered 12,677 vaccinations on Wednesday taking the total number of doses delivered through the state system to 398,009.
It comes as the number of exposure sites in Melbourne continued to grow, with the state government’s list approached 80 separate locations Thursday morning.
The Moonee Valley Football Club posted on Facebook on Wednesday that a player in their men’s thirds team, who is a work colleague of a positive case, returned a positive COVID-19 test result on Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday a source close to the government, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential decision said Victorians are likely to be sent back into lockdown on Thursday after senior cabinet ministers met late into the evening.
The source said top cabinet ministers weighed up the merits of a lockdown last night and two ministers confirmed to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that a lockdown would be the probable course of action.
More to come
Paul is a Victorian political reporter for The Age.
Michael is a state political reporter for The Age.
Sumeyya is a state political reporter for The Age.
David Estcourt is a court and general news reporter at The Age.