Another 73 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Victoria, as suburbs head into localised lockdown.
Three of the cases are from hotel quarantine, nine are associated with known and contained outbreaks, 19 were found through routine testing and 42 remain under investigation by the public health team, Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed on July 1.
Dozens of suburbs re-enter lockdown from midnight as a result of the community outbreak and two weeks of double-digit case numbers.
“There will be 12 new sites that will be dedicated testing locations across all of those postcodes that have been locked down from midnight tonight,” Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters.
“This is not over. It won’t be over for a long time and the best and most important thing that we can all do, whether we are in one of these hot spot postcodes or not, is to follow the rules.”
In the week since a door knocking information blitz started in Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs due to the outbreak, about 54,000 homes had been reached and 113,000 tests done.
The majority of Victoria’s new cases are due to community transmission, prompting Andrews to reintroduce stay-at-home orders for 10 postcodes from Thursday until at least July 29.
Those postcodes are: 3038, 3064, 3047, 3060, 3012, 3032, 3055, 3042, 3021, 3046.
Much like earlier stage three restrictions, residents of the postcodes will only be able to leave their homes for four reasons: to shop for food and supplies, to receive or provide care, to exercise and study or work if they can’t do so from home.
