Coronavirus: Melbourne enters new six-week lockdown due to ‘unsustainably high numbers’

Australia’s second-largest city will be subject to the lockdown, and the entire state of Victoria will effectively be sealed off from the rest of the country from Tuesday midnight

Meanwhile, New Zealand on Tuesday said its national airline will not take new bookings for three weeks as the country seeks to limit the number of citizens returning home

Reading Time:3 minutes

Firefighters dressed in personal protective equipment prepare to distribute food throughout a Melbourne housing estate, locked down in response to an outbreak of coronavirus. Photo: Reuters

Published: 3:05pm, 7 Jul 2020Updated: 10:18pm, 7 Jul 2020

More than 5 million residents of Melbourne will be locked down for six weeks after coronavirus cases surged in Australia’s second-biggest city, authorities announced on Tuesday.

State Premier Daniel Andrews said the lockdown would begin at midnight Wednesday and last at least six weeks, as he warned residents “we can’t pretend” the coronavirus crisis is over. After the south-eastern city detected 191 new cases in 24 hours, Andrews said there were now too many incidents of the virus to trace and track.

“These are unsustainably high numbers,” he said. “No one wanted to be in this position. I know there will be enormous amounts of damage that will be done because of this. It will be very challenging.”

Residents will be restricted to their homes except for work, exercise, medical care or to buy essentials.

Most students will return to remote learning while restaurants and cafes will be limited to serving takeaway food.

“There is simply no alternative other than thousands and thousands of cases and potentially more,” Andrews told reporters.

Experts have warned that people everywhere will have to get used to the “new normal” of on-and-off restrictions as new clusters emerge and subside.