Just hours after Melbourne’s latest lockdown was lengthened, Victorian authorities began looking at extending it once again, according to reports.
The Victorian capital was initially due to come out of its latest snap lockdown tonight, but on Wednesday it was revealed the shut-in needs to go for longer – until 11.59pm on August 19.
Premier Daniel Andrews said yesterday there were still “too many unanswered questions and too many mysteries” surrounding rising covid cases to ease restrictions on time.
“There are too many cases the origins of which are not clear to us, too many unanswered questions, too many mysteries for us to safely come out of lockdown now,” Mr Andrews said.
“The extreme infectivity of this virus, and the fact that within a very short space of time, if we were to open, we would see cases akin to what’s happening tragically in Sydney right now.”
The Herald Sun reported on Thursday morning that government officials are now already discussing the prospect of extending the lockdown by another week.
Victoria is approaching a total of 200 days under stay-at-home orders over several lockdowns.
Based on the best available data of the world’s leading cities, only Londoners appear to have been confined to their homes for longer than Melbourne.
Melburnians have also grappled with some of the toughest lockdown measures in the world.
No other Australian city, including Sydney, which is entering its 99th cumulative day of lockdown, has experienced night-time curfews either.
Five new mystery cases put Victorian health authorities on alert on Wednesday, as 20 local cases were recorded. Of those, 14 were insolation throughout their infectious period.
The state recorded 21 new cases on Thursday.
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