Andrews says Victoria has ‘no alternative’ but to go back into lockdown — as it happened

By Liam Butterworth

Today’s case numbers and press conference times

If you don’t see your state or territory, don’t worry — it means no press conference was held, or case numbers are yet to be released.

ACT

No new cases, no press conference announced

New South Wales

Cases: 262 locally acquired cases, 6 acquired overseas, five COVID-related deaths

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Northern Territory

No new cases, border closed to Melbourne, no press conference

Queensland

Cases: 16 local, 11 overseas

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South Australia

No new cases, no press conference announced yet.

Tasmania

One new case, detected in hotel quarantine but left the state.

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Border closed with Victoria

Watch the press conference here.

Victoria

Cases: 6 new cases, one announced yesterday

Watch the press conference here.

Lockdown announced for 7 days

Watch the press conference here.

Western Australia

No new cases today.

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And that’s us for tonight.

Phew!

Victoria has gone into a snap lockdown, borders have been slammed shut and, understandably, lots of extra contact sites have been announced in lots of different cities. 

Keep an eye on the ABC app or our home page for more information, or follow your state health departments on Twitter, where they can post much more quickly than their web pages can get updated. 

Take care of yourself and each other, friends. Until next time, good bye.

What you can and can’t do under Victoria’s lockdown

If you can’t access the Victorian government’s information, we’re here to help.

This is not going to answer all questions, because life is far too complicated for that, but start here:

What’s within 5 kilometres?

Hi, Any chance you could repost the link for 5kms? You’d think I would remember by now, maybe just blocking it from m

-Here we go again

Do you mean this one?

And, by the way, this works for anywhere in Australia, not just Melbourne!

Victorian border communities

Dan Andrews’s press release said “there are no changes to the current arrangements for border communities”.

This is what the full list of restrictions says:

Vic-NSW Cross border community residents: NSW has been designated an extreme risk zone. Border community residents in an extreme risk zone can enter Victoria without a permit but only for the following permitted reasons:

• necessary goods and services, including medical care and getting a COVID-19 test
• caregiving or compassionate reasons
• paid or voluntary work
• education (including childcare and early childhood services)
• sport and exercise at a sporting club or at a physical recreation facility (excluding alpine resorts)
• visiting an intimate partner
• moving house, inspecting a property or attending an auction
• driving someone who cannot drive themselves for one of the above reasons
• travelling between places in Victoria where it is easier to travel through NSW

Queensland contact sites updated

A lot of Ashgrove, St Lucia, West End, some around Ipswich and Loganholme — check the full list.

There is a 5 kilometre limit in Victoria

Is there a 5km limit imposed in this current Vic lockdown as per previous post

I hope not

-Confused

I’m afraid there is — at least for exercise and shopping for essentials. 

These are the exceptions, copied from the official list:

Intrastate travel: Travel limit of 5km from place of primary residence, except:

• to return home
• to access necessary goods and services where those goods and services cannot be accessed closer than 5kms from home.
• to visit an intimate partner
• to visit a person in your “single bubble”
• allowed to travel for authorised work and permitted education
• work at an interstate location (where permitted by another state)
• care and compassionate reasons (specific exemptions apply)

Interstate workers can travel out of Victoria

How can you go to the NT if we have a 5km travel limit?

-Booking a flight out of here…

It does seem a bit redundant, but the short answer is: Workers.

Victoria’s list of exceptions does include:

• authorised work or permitted education, or work interstate

(Emphasis added by me.)

Which, of course, depends upon your destination letting you in. 

And the onus is on you to confirm you are allowed to travel.

If you’re in Sydney, the list of exposure sites has been updated

Full details (searchable by suburb) here: 

Can regional Victorians fly into the NT?

Does the NT border changes mean that regional Victorian’s can still fly into NT?

-Matt

OK Matt, so, here are the rules:

All travellers into the NT, including returning Territorians, must:

• fill in a Border Entry Form
• complete 14 days of mandatory supervised quarantine at your own expense* if you have recently been in an active declared COVID-19 hot spot. This includes children returning from a hotspot.

Emphasis added by me. So, if you haven’t been in Greater Melbourne for two weeks, your chances are good. Since you have to fill in an entry form, you’ll find out one way or another.

Details here, from the NT government:

Greater Melbourne, not all of Victoria, declared a hotspot by NT

Newcastle couple rush wedding in before lockdown

Josh Chodyko and Kerrin Procter were married in the front yard of a Rankin Park home an hour before the city went into a seven-day lockdown.

Travel restrictions updated for ACT

If you’re thinking of travelling to our nation’s capital or surrounds, be warned: There are restrictions in place. It’s not a blanket ban on any state, so look at the specifics.

Details available here:

Table of restrictions for Victoria

Hi team, is anyone able to get the table of restrictions from Dan’s statement to download? Keeps saying failed no file!

-VIC – table of restrictions

Sorry about that. I could, so try this link:

The full thing is 8 pages. If that link loads for you, it will also give you the ability to download the original PDF

Financial support for Victorians

For individuals and businesses, the Victorian government has this (quite extensive) list.

About these press conference live links…

While it’s a day for correcting mistakes: We sometimes stream press conferences through ABC Facebook pages when we don’t have capacity through our YouTube links, but there’s a technical problem between this blogging platform and Facebook links. 

So, I have shared a few links without noticing that they don’t, um, show up properly to you, our readers. 

Sorry about that.

However! We have a workaround, so I think I’ve updated the old posts that may have confused you.

On with the show.

Vaccine doses redirected from regions to Sydney will be going back to the regions

A week ago, the state government announced it would take up to 40,000 first dose vaccines from regional Local Health Districts to ramp up the vaccination numbers of year 12 students in western and south-west Sydney suburbs.

However, the federal government today announced an additional 180,000 Pfizer vaccines would be provided to Sydney, allowing the borrowed regional doses to be returned.

Victoria’s DHS is yet to update its list of restrictions

If you’re checking online to see what you’re able to do — hang tight a little while longer.

Right now, the COVID-Safe Settings page lists restrictions as of Tuesday, July 27. 

The summary of current restrictions is: Only leave home for essential reasons including care-giving, shopping for essentials and work that can not be done from home, and: Shopping must be within 5 kilometres of your home.

The Premier’s statement in full can be found here:

How did a Sydney traveller get to Tasmania without a valid G2G pass?

Police and health authorities gave a few more details this afternoon.

The 31-year-old Sydney traveller applied for a G2G (Good 2 Go) pass to enter Tasmania on the morning of his travel on Monday, August 2.

He flew from Sydney to Melbourne and then from Melbourne to Launceston without his pass returning as approved.

He then made a manual application at the border in Tasmania but was not approved and was taken in hotel quarantine in Launceston.

He waited in quarantine before heading back to the airport and boarding his flight out of the state on Wednesday, August 4.

His coronavirus test was done in quarantine on Tuesday but did not return a result until after he flew out of Tasmania.

NT to declare Greater Melbourne hotspot

The Northern Territory will declare Greater Melbourne a hotspot from 7:30pm local time tonight.

Anyone who arrives in the Northern Territory from Greater Melbourne after that time will be directed into 14 days supervised quarantine at their own expense.

There will not be any testing requirements for people who arrive in the NT prior to 7:30pm this evening.