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Covid Victoria: Daniel Andrews extends lockdown by 7 days

Victorians will remain in lockdown for another week as the state works to contain the spread of its latest coronavirus outbreak.

The state announced a total of 13 locally acquired Covid cases on Tuesday, however four of those were announced on Monday.

Premier Daniel Andrews said nine of the 13 cases had been isolating for the entirety of the infectious period.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 19: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews speaks to the media at the daily press conference on July 19, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Lockdown restrictions have come into effect across Victoria as health authorities work to contain two COVID-19 outbreaks linked to Sydney's delta strain coronavirus cluster. The snap five-day lockdown, which came into effect at midnight on Thursday, was called after more new COVID-19 cases and exposure sites were confirmed across the state. Under the lockdown restrictions, Victorians are only able to leave home for five reasons: for essential work; to give or receive care; shopping for essentials; to get vaccinated; or for exercise within a 5km radius from their homes. This lockdown is Victoria's fifth lockdown, with restrictions expected to remain in place until 11:59pm Tuesday 20 July. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
Daniel Andrews has announced the lockdown in Victoria will be extended. Source: Getty

"That is very, very promising," he said.

Mr Andrews said however there could be unknown cases in the community and the lockdown would end on July 27 at 11.59pm to combat the risk.

"We can't run the risk that there are cases out there that we don't know about," he said.

"We need to avoid, what's going on in Sydney at the moment."

'We need more time'

The daily total in Victoria has either stayed the same or dropped over three consecutive days after an alarming 19 cases on Saturday, a promising result considering the infectiousness of the Delta variant and the alarming surge in infections NSW has experienced.

Mr Andrews said the state had done the right thing by introducing a lockdown quickly due to the speed at which the Delta variant can spread through the community.

“This thing spreads incredibly fast,” he said.

“The trend is good, but we need more time to be absolutely certain that all that we’ve given and all that we’ve done has been successful.

“There’s very little margin for error in this, leaving it smouldering, this Delta variant … really does mean that you almost certainly will have a further outbreak, further lockdowns.”

Mr Andrews said they went “hard and fast early” to avoid being in lockdown for months.

"A victory against this is absolutely in reach," he said.

SA to enter lockdown after fifth case

South Australia will move into a full seven-day lockdown on Tuesday afternoon after a cluster of COVID-19 cases grew to five.

The fifth case is someone who dined at a restaurant in Adelaide where previously infected people were also present on Saturday night.

The lockdown rules will come into effect from 6pm with South Australians only allowed out for five reasons.

Premier Steven Marshall said it had also been confirmed the current cases involved the Delta variant of the disease.

"We hate putting these restrictions in place but we have one chance to get this right," the premier said.

"We are moving as quickly as we can to slow and stop the spread of this cluster.

"We know these restrictions will take a heavy toll. But we've always had a situation where we go hard and we go early in South Australia.

"We've got to stop movement around this state and we've got to stop it immediately."

with AAP

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