Everything you need to know about Victoria’s five-day intense lockdown

Victoria has been plunged into a snap five-day lockdown after a string of worrying Covid cases and a long list of exposure sites.

Premier Daniel Andrews made the announcement on Thursday afternoon declaring stay-at-home orders will be in place from Thursday July 15 at 11:59pm to Tuesday July 20 at 11:59pm. 

As part of the strict measures there are now only five lawful reasons to leave home – essential shopping, exercise, medical care, work or study that cannot be done from home, daily exercise and to go and get vaccinated.

There are now only five lawful reasons to leave home in Victoria. Pictured: Melburnians are seen walking their dog by the Yarra River

Mandatory wearing of face masks will also return and residents will also be restricted from travelling more than five km away from their home.     

The state has now recorded 16 total cases of the highly infectious Indian Delta variant after a crew of removalist from Covid-ravaged Western Sydney brought the virus across the border. 

Their visit has created two chains of transmission that has left contact tracers scrambling to find thousands of residents that have potentially been exposed. 

‘We now have new cases, new exposure sites and a strain of this virus that is wildly infectious,’ Mr Andrews said.

‘We’ve seen this strain before – and you probably already know what we need to do next.

‘Victoria will not wait to act. We know that not much good comes from waiting. Waiting could see more people infected and the number of exposure sites explode.’

‘If we act now – while we’re right on the heels of this outbreak – we can give ourselves every chance of getting ahead of it. If we wait – we lose that option.’  

The state has now recorded 16 total cases of the highly infectious Indian Delta variant. Pictured: A Melbourne Testing Site Albert Park

It is the fifth lockdown in Victoria since the pandemic hit Australia’s shores. Pictured: Pedestrians in Melbourne

Victoria’s latest outbreak began when a crew of three removalists from Sydney travelled to Victoria as part of their work.

They all had the appropriate permits to enter the state despite the Harbour city’s spiraling number of Covid cases which as now surpassed 800. 

The three-man team arrived at a home in Craigieburn on the northern outskirts on of Melbourne July 8, where they dropped off furniture.

The visit resulted in a family of four testing positive with one of them transmitting the virus to a man at the local Coles.

Later that same day the removalists travelled to the Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s west, to the Ariele Apartment complex.

Victoria Covid-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said the three removalists were not wearing masks as exemptions are granted for strenuous activities like carrying furniture.  

As a result numerous resident were infected with the virus at Ariele Apartments, sending the entire building and its 200 residents into quarantine for 14 days.

A resident in his 60s passed on the virus to his parents, aged 89 and 90, who live in Craigieburn.

The same man also attended an AFL game between Carlton and Geelong at the MCG on Saturday with a friend, a Bacchus Marsh Grammar teacher.

The friend, a Barwon Heads man in his 50s has since tested positive as have two members of his household, another man in his 60s and a nine-year-old child.

An adult and a child who were sitting in the same section of the MCG as the two men have also tested positive in a case of suspected ‘stranger-to-stranger transmission’.

It was revealed on Thursday afternoon yet another case was detected in a man in his 20s who was in the MCC Members’ Reserve area at the MCG at the same time as the two men.