Victoria has recorded zero locally acquired cases of COVID-19 as the state works to contain another outbreak of the virus.
Saturday marks the third day in a row without any community transmission while one case was recorded in hotel quarantine.
The new infections come after more than a dozen suburbs were put on high alert across the state after they were exposed to positive cases including a temple, a golf club and a Nandos restaurant.
New restrictions have also been imposed on those returning from Queensland after Greater Brisbane was thrown into a strict three-day lockdown after a Brisbane hotel quarantine cleaner tested positive on Thursday for the UK super-strain.
Any Victorians who are in the areas affected have been told to stay where they are until at least Monday where the lockdown ends at 6pm.
Those who are returning from Brisbane to Victoria since January 2 are required to get tested and isolate until at least Monday and residents in Queensland’s red zones are banned from the southern state unless they have an exemption.
Passengers returning from Brisbane are seen at Melbourne Airport on Friday
On Friday there were zero locally acquired cases and one infection recorded in hotel quarantine.
State health officials added venues in 15 suburbs in both Melbourne and regional Victoria to the list of places exposed to positive COVID-19 cases.
Anyone who visited the Merrymen Cafe in Hampton in the city’s south-east between 12.50pm and 2.40pm on December 28 must get tested and self-isolate for 14 days from the date of exposure.
The same isolation order has been issued for those who visited the Sikh Temple in Keysborough on January 1 between 3pm and 6pm.
People have also been ordered to isolate for two weeks if they visited an Ikea, a Nandos and a brewery.
The same instructions have also been given to yacht club, a dumpling restaurant and cinema.
Those who visited the Sikh Temple in Keysborough on January 1 between 3pm and 6pm have been told to self-isolate
Victorians who visited the Village Century City cinema on December 28 have been told to get tested immediately
Zero locally acquired cases were recorded in Victoria on Saturday and one infection in hotel quarantine
Punters who were at the club bar at the Woodlands Golf Club in Mordialloc on December 28 between 4.40pm and 5.15pm must also get tested immediately.
The warnings comes despite zero cases of community transmission being recorded in Victoria on Thursday.
The MCG has also been listed as possibly having been exposed to COVID-19.
Anyone who visited the site December 27, seated in The Great Southern Stand in Zone 5, between 12.30pm-3.30pm, must get tested and self-quarantine until a negative result.
‘This means we have a confirmed case of coronavirus who was not infectious but that we believe may have acquired their infection at this location,’ health officials said.
Punters who were at the club bar at the Woodlands Golf Club in Mordialloc on December 28 between 4.40pm and 5.15pm must get tested immediately
Victoria has also shut its border to all of NSW, fearing another wave of the deadly virus – after its second left 820 people dead and millions suffering three months of strict lockdown.
Queensland on Thursday confirmed a mutant strain of Covid which plunged the UK into a third lockdown had escaped hotel quarantine and is in the community.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Friday that Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton, and Redland residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for four reasons from 6pm on Friday to 6pm on Monday.
That includes essential shopping, work, healthcare or exercise around the neighbourhood. They will also need to wear face masks when leaving their homes.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said Brisbane’s lockdown may continue past Monday.
A woman in her 20s who works as a cleaner at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Brisbane’s Spring Hill tested positive to the highly-contagious strain of the virus late on Wednesday.
Health officials have since determined she spent at least four days in the community while infected, visiting Brisbane’s busiest train stations during peak hour and two grocery stores in her local community.
There are concerns the mutated virus, which is believed to be up to 70 per cent more contagious than previous strains, could have already spread among close contacts.
A terrifying map shows the Brisbane locations which have been exposed to the UK’s mutant variant of the virus since January 2, including a busy train line, a Coles and a Woolworths
Meanwhile, in Perth a paramedic, a nurse and a third person are all in hotel quarantine after coming into contact with a COVID-19 patient who recently returned from the United Kingdom.
The woman, in her 80s, arrived from the UK on January 2 already showing symptoms of the virus and subsequently tested positive.
Genomic testing is underway but it is not yet known if she has the more virulent strain which has caused havoc in Britain.
Passengers travelling from the UK and other COVID-19 hotspots are expected to undergo mandatory pre-flight coronavirus tests before they even step on the plane in an effort to prevent the highly contagious new strain from gaining a foothold in Australia.
The woman’s case came after WA officials confirmed earlier this week that three people who also spent time in hotel quarantine in Perth had subsequently been found to have had the more transmissible UK COVID-19 strain.
They have since recovered and been released from isolation.
The strain has spiralled out of control in the UK, where infections reached a record 61,000 new daily cases on Tuesday, giving the nation’s prime minister Boris Johnson ‘no choice’ but to impose a brutal third national lockdown.
Brisbane will enter into a three-day hard lockdown from 6pm on Friday (pictured, a testing centre in Murrarrie, Brisbane)