Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has today announced that two more postcodes have been added to the suburban lockdown across Melbourne from 11.59pm Saturday night.
Statement from the Premier on further local restrictions. pic.twitter.com/ZT9roaMwlP
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) July 4, 2020
In a press conference today, Daniel Andrews announced that postcodes 3031 and 3051 will be lockdown from 11.59pm tonight. These postcodes include Flemington, Kensington and North Melbourne.
“Those entire post-codes are essentially added to the suburban lockdown from 11:59pm tonight,” Dan Andrews said in a press conference on Saturday afternoon.
Additional, nine public housing towers in those postcodes will be immediately placed under a “complete lockdown” for at least the next five days.
“Nine public housing towers – given that there are positive cases in a number of those towers and given the very high density of that nature of housing, the number of shared facilities – everything from laundries to obviously access and egress points, lifts et cetera – the public health advice is to close those Nine towers,” Andrews explained. “There will be no reason for any of those residents to leave their home for a period of at least — to leave their home for a period of at least five days effective immediately.”
The nine towers include 1,345 units with approximately 3,000 residents, who will be unable to leave their residence for any reason for the next five days.
According to Andrews, at least 500 police officers will be on duty per shift to ensure the safety and compliance of residents.
There are now twelve postcodes across Melbourne in lockdown as a result of the coronavirus. Daniel Andrews delivered the following message to residents of these suburbs:
“You are on the front line of our fight against this virus. We are proud of you. We understand that you need support and we will get that support to each and every one of you as best we possibly can.”
Andrews additionally urged Melburnians in non-hotspot suburbs to do the right thing in order to prevent further spreading of the virus, asking them to consent to testing if they are subject to door-knocking.
“Keep your distance, wash your hands, cough in to your elbow and just use common sense. If you’re sick you can’t go out, unless, OK, you’re going out to get tested. If someone knocks on your door – because there is door knocking going on across the whole city – please be sure and consent to a test.”
As it currently stands, the following postcodes are in lockdown: 3012, 3021, 3032, 3038, 3042, 3046, 3047, 3055, 3060, 3064 and now 3031 and 3051.
The decision comes as Victoria’s coronavirus tally hit 2,469 cases, with 108 new cases diagnosed overnight.
