Melbourne lockdown extended for seven days as state records 20 new cases

Melbourne’s lockdown has been extended for another seven days as authorities scramble to investigate the source of five mystery cases among Wednesday’s 20 new cases.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the restrictions currently in place would not change.

Melbourne’s lockdown will be extended for another seven days.Credit:Getty Images

Of the 20 new locally acquired cases reported on Wednesday, 15 have been linked to current outbreaks and five are under investigation. Six of those cases were not in isolation throughout their infectious periods.

Residents of Greater Melbourne will remain in lockdown until 11.59pm on Thursday, August 18.

Regional Victoria’s lockdown restrictions were lifted at 11.59pm on Monday.

Mr Andrews said he knew that extending Greater Melbourne’s lockdown would be “very challenging” for people.

“I’d like to be open and have a degree of freedom that’s simply not possible because of this Delta variant, the extreme infectivity of this virus,” he said.

“Within a very short space of time, if we were to open, then we would see cases akin to what’s happening tragically in Sydney right now.”

Mr Andrews said a permit system would be introduced within the border communities along the Murray River.

“It’s very important that we not only limit movement, we have the clearest picture of who is moving within that border bubble,” he said.

“From 1pm tomorrow, but not enforced until 6pm Friday, people will need to â€" if they want to use that bubble â€" will need to get a permit.”

There were 41,571 test results processed on Tuesday while 23,811 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in state-run clinics.

More to come

David Estcourt is a court and general news reporter at The Age.

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