Due to a growing number of COVID-19 cases stemming from the Melbourne Holiday Inn cluster, Victoria will go into a snap five-day lockdown.

Following concerns and speculation that another lockdown was imminent following an outbreak of COVID-19 at the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel in Melbourne and the confirmation of five new cases today (bringing the total number up to 13), Victoria Premier Dan Andrews has confirmed that this will indeed be a case.

In a press conference on Friday afternoon, February 12th (via ABC News), Andrews has announced that the entire state of Victoria will undergo a five-day snap lockdown starting from midnight in an attempt to keep the Holiday Inn cluster under control.

“I’m announcing, on advice from the chief health officer, and after a meeting of relevant Cabinet committees and the full Cabinet, that from 11:59pm tonight Victoria – all of Victoria – will go to Stage 4 restrictions,” Andrews confirmed. “And I’ll take you through the details of those. It probably won’t be an exhaustive list.”

“There will inevitably be questions that will be posed, and we’ll deal with those throughout the day. From 11:59pm tonight until 11:59pm on Wednesday.”

Andrews states that the decision to lockdown Victoria stems from concern over how quickly COVID-19 is spreading from this Holiday Inn cluster.

“The way in which they are presenting is a very significant concern to us,” says the Premier.” If I can just give you a couple of examples, I’ll make the point this way. We are having cases test positive – and we, in rapid time we get notified of that positive test result – by the time we find that case as positive, they’ve already infected their close contacts. Their family. People they live with, people they’ve spent time with.”

“That makes it incredibly difficult, incredibly difficult to do contact tracing, because there is no gap, if you like, between when we have the first case and their close contacts and potentially others that they have spent time with.

“The whole process, because of the hyper-infectivity and the speed at which this moves, the whole process has been condensed down, and it is now, I am sad to have to report, it is the advice to me that we must assume that there are further cases in the community than we have positive results for, and that it is moving at a velocity that has not been seen anywhere in our country.”

So what does this mean for Victorians over the next five days?

Victorians will only be allowed to leave their homes for four reasons: essential supplies, care and caregiving, exercise, and essential work. Basically the same as last year.

Beyond that, everyone will have to abide by the following rules:

  • You must stay within 5km of your home other than for permitted work
  • Masks are mandatory everywhere in Victoria
  • No visitors to anyone’s home
  • Public gatherings not permitted at all
  • Schools will close but will remain open for vulnerable children or children of essential workers
  • Indoor and outdoor physical recreation and sport will be closed
  • Higher education and training will be remote learning only
  • Religious gatherings and ceremonies are not permitted
  • Funerals can involve no more than 10 people
  • Weddings (indoor and outdoor) not permitted unless end of life or other exceptional reasons and can only involve five people
  • Hospitality will move to take away only

Early learning centres, childcare, and family day care centres will remain open.

In addition to the five-day snap lockdown, Acting Health Minister Steven Miles says Queensland will close the border to Greater Melbourne starting at 1:00am tonight and anyone planning to enter QLD from Victoria will require a border pass.

Acting Chief Health Officer Sonya Bennett said the border closure will be reviewed in 14 days time.

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