‘We need more time’: Victoria’s lockdown extended and red zone permit rules tightened

Victoria’s lockdown has been extended for another seven days.

It’s now scheduled to end on midnight on Tuesday, July 27.

“We need more time,” Premier Daniel Andrews said while announcing the extension on Tuesday.

“There are chains of transmission that are not yet contained, that we don’t know about, and if we would open up we would see how quickly this runs.

“We need to avoid what is going on in Sydney at the moment.”

The red zone permits for Victorians returning from interstate will also be tightened for two weeks from 11.59pm on July 20.

The only people who will receive a permit to travel from a red zone into Victoria are those who are authorised workers and those who apply for and get an exemption on compassionate grounds.

“I can’t cope having hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of Victorians coming back to Victoria while the situation further deteriorates and we see more and more cases,” Mr Andrews said.

It comes after the state recorded 13 new local cases of COVID-19 on Monday.

Nine of the cases were in isolation for their entire infectious period.

Of the new cases:

• Seven are linked to Ms Frankie’s restaurant (three staff, two patrons, two household contacts)
• Two are linked to the Trinity Grammar outbreak (one staff member and one close contact who is a student at Ruyton Girls’ School)
• Two household contacts linked to the MCG
• One member of the group that travelled to Phillip Island
• A woman in her 20s from Roxburgh Park

The Roxburgh Park case has not yet been linked to existing outbreaks but COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar says health authorities have “strong indications” she is linked to the City of Hume family.

Anyone showing any COVID-19 symptoms who lives in the Roxburgh Park or Coolaroo are is urged to come forward for testing urgently.

There are a total of 85 case of COVID-19 across the state, and about 18,000 close contacts of confirmed cases.

Image: Darrian Traynor / Getty