Residents of the Rural City of Mildura will remain in lockdown for a further seven days due to the significant and ongoing transmission of COVID-19 in the local community.
Victoria's Chief Health Officer on Friday recommended the seven-day extension after 34 new cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in the region in the past 24 hours. The lockdown will now extend until midnight on 22 October.
Victoria's public health teams remain concerned about high caseloads in Mildura, which accounts for 18 per cent of all regional cases confirmed in the past 24 hours.
There are now 188 active cases of COVID-19 in Mildura - up from nine active cases on 8 October.
With restrictions continuing, Mildura residents can only leave home for limited reasons: accessing necessary goods and services, caregiving or compassionate reasons (including medical care and getting a COVID-19 test), authorised work or permitted education, exercise and outdoor social interaction in limited groups, and getting a COVID-19 vaccine in the Mildura LGA.
Locals can leave home to visit their intimate partner or single social-bubble buddy. No other visitors are allowed in the home. Shopping, exercise and outdoor social interaction remain limited to 15km from the home. Masks remain mandatory indoors and outdoors and must be worn on public transport.
Residents have four hours a day for exercise and outdoor social interaction. They can meet with one other person, or up to four others from two households if each person present is fully vaccinated. Dependants can also attend.
Under lockdown restrictions, residents cannot leave the Mildura LGA and travel elsewhere in regional Victoria other than for limited reasons, such as authorised work and permitted education, care and compassionate reasons, visiting an intimate partner, and accessing necessary goods and services (only if they can't be obtained locally).
Locals are asked to be on high alert for symptoms and get tested if any develop. Testing centres are available at Barratt and Smith Pathology on Langtree Avenue, the Mildura Respiratory Clinic on Thirteenth Street, and the Old Aerodrome Ovals on Eleventh Street.
Vaccination rates in Mildura have increased strongly in the past seven days - 92.4 per cent of locals aged 16 and over have had at least one dose, and 58 per cent are fully vaccinated with two doses.
Mildura locals are encouraged to book their COVID-19 vaccination through their local GP or community pharmacy, community health service or state vaccination centre. To make a booking, visit Australian Government Department of Health's website.
For more information on Mildura's lockdown restrictions, visit How we live: metropolitan Melbourne and Mildura Rural City Council.
Quotes attributable to Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton
With case numbers remaining high, we're extending Mildura's lockdown to curb community transmission.
Everyone in Mildura needs to follow Victoria's lockdown restrictions, get tested if they have symptoms and get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible.
Everyone in Mildura has an important part to play in protecting their family, friends and community from COVID-19.
