Hundreds of police officers will roam across the coronavirus hotspots in Melbourne ensuring residents abide by the strict stay-at-home order.
The Victorian government re-imposed stay-at-home orders for 36 suburbs in ten postcodes at midnight on Wednesday after recording 212 new cases of the deadly virus in three days.
Residents will be banned from leaving their homes except for work and school, food shopping, giving care and daily exercise. The lockdown is expected to last for four weeks.
Chief Commissioner Shane Patton warned that there will be ‘significant’ presence of about 1,000 police in the hotspots on Thursday, who will focused on coronavirus enforcement patrols.
He said anyone caught flouting the new restrictions will be fined $1,652.
Chief Commissioner Shane Patton warned that there will be ‘significant’ presence of about 1,000 police in the hotspots on Thursday, who will focused on coronavirus enforcement patrols
A quiet scene outside a supermarket in Broadmeadows, which is one of the suburbs in lockdown
A sign is seen reading ‘If you have any symptoms please go home – ‘No shopping’ at the Broadmeadows central shopping centre where drive through covid-19 testing is taking place
‘You’d have to have been on Mars not to understand that the chief health officer restrictions apply in these 36 suburbs.
‘For those who are selfish enough to disregard these warnings from the Victoria Police…we will be infringing them. The window of police discretion is a very small window at the moment, I can assure you, and it’s rapidly closing.
‘So for those reasons, I have instructed all of our officers that – that window of leniency – it may exist on some very small few occasions, but other than that, people are expected to get tickets for $1652.
‘I want to be absolutely crystal-clear – for those who are selfish enough to disregard these warnings from the Chief Health Officer, the deliberate, obvious and blatant breaches, if they’re committing that, we will be infringing them.’
n empty row of shops is seen at the Olsen Place shopping village in the suburb of Broadmeadows
An empty row of shops is seen at the Olsen Place shopping village in the suburb of Broadmeadows
Restaurants, gyms, pubs and all other non-essential services in the suburbs must once again close their doors. Affected businesses will be compensated with a government cash grant of $5,000.
Residents from the ten postcodes will not be allowed to go on holiday and the government will announce a support package for affected tourism businesses tomorrow.
The lockdown will last for four weeks and come into force from 11.59pm on Wednesday. Police will be enforcing the orders with random vehicle checks similar to random breath tests and will dish out on-the-spot fines.
This map shows the suburbs which will be subject to stay-at-home orders from Wednesday at 11.59pm after a spike in coronavirus cases
Police pull vehicles aside at a checkpoint in the locked-down suburb of Broadmeadows in Melbourne on July 2
The curve in Victoria has skyrocketed over the past couple of weeks as coronavirus infections continue to grow from within the suburbs of Melbourne
Premier Daniel Andrews said the lockdown was ‘deeply painful’ and ‘damaging for businesses’ but insisted that it was necessary.
‘If we don’t take these steps now we will be locking down every postcode,’ he said.
As hotspot areas in Australia’s second most populous city began a four-week lockdown on Thursday morning, masked officers were seen using light beacons and cones to flag down motorists approaching each checkpoint.
Each motorist is being asked where they are going, where they have come from and the reason for their travel.
Victoria Police would not yet confirm to Daily Mail Australia the number of checkpoints that have been set up – but said further details on the large-scale police operation may be made available at a press conference later on Thursday.
VicRoads has also revealed it is experiencing a surge in Victorians trying to change their addresses to bypass the road blocks.
Victorians could normally quickly change their address by getting a short-term sticker to attach to their old licence, while the road authority processes a new card.
The state’s road authority has this week though introduced detailed review procedures to prevent people from falsifying information to authorities.
A line of masked police officers speak to drivers at border checkpoints in Broadmeadows. VicRoads has said it has experienced a surge in Victorians trying to change their addresses to bypass the road blocks
A police officer on the Melton Highway near Brimbank inspects the drivers licence of a moped driver on Thursday. Booze bus-style operations began across the Brimbank council area as part of localised restrictions across 10 post codes to slow a second wave outbreak of COVID-19
VicRoads will instead ask anyone attempting to change their address from a hotspot suburb to evidence in additional detail the reason for doing so.
Those who falsify a claim or withhold information from the Victorian Department of Transport agency face a fine of up to $825.
The authority – which processes about 3,000 requests to change address each day – would not reveal how many licence change of address requests had been filed to them in the day since the lockdown was announced on Tuesday night.