Victoria extends state of emergency lockdown for another four weeks

Victoria has extended its state of emergency by another four weeks as authorities combat the coronavirus.

Premier Daniel Andrews has declared the restrictions will now remain in place until midnight on May 11.

He hasn’t ruled out a further extension in order to protect the state’s health system and save lives.

‘This is unprecedented, but these powers are passed by the parliament and … enforce and ensure our strategy is in place,’ Premier Andrews told reporters on Sunday.

‘I am deeply grateful to every Victorian doing the right thing. I am very impressed to think so many people are heeding the warnings and following the advice on staying home and protecting the health system, and ultimately saving lives.

‘We know it is deeply inconvenient, and it is frustrating we can’t give people an end date.

Just three new cases were recorded in Victoria overnight.  

Around 28 patients are in hospital, including 16 patients in intensive care. 

There’s been no rise in the state’s death toll, which stands at 14. 

Victorians will face tough restrictions until at least midnight May 11. Pictured are Easter Saturday crowds at Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market

‘We are aggressively tracing our outbreaks, and making sure this virus does not get away from us. If it does, our health system will simply be overrun and people will die,’ Premier Andrews said.

‘It is protecting our health system and saving lives. 

Our strategy is fundamentally working. The alternative, of course, if we look at places like New York and some parts of Europe, is not something that we want to see repeated here, and that is why it is so important to go hard and then maintain those settings stop that is exactly what we have done.’