A spike in coronavirus cases in Victoria has led to warnings from New South Wales about interstate travel.
There were nearly 20 positive cases recorded in the state yesterday, which takes the state's total for the week to 160, according to 9News. It's caused a massive headache for Premier Daniel Andrews and has prompted a tightening of some social distancing measures.
From today, the limitations on people able to attend home gatherings are being reduced from 10 to five people while outdoor gatherings are being reduced from 20 to 10 people.
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Pubs, restaurants and cafes were meant to be able to welcome up to 50 customers today, however that has been put on hold and they will have a maximum capacity of 20. Gyms and cinemas will reopen with a limit of 20 people.
Some people are pretending this is over because they desperately want it to be. No one wishes that were the case more than me – but the facts tell us otherwise.
The concerning numbers have caused NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to warn people in her state not to cross the border unless they absolutely need to.
Ms Berejiklian said the border will not be closed, but expressed her hopes that everyone will heed the advice.
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"As is consistent with the health advice from Victoria, and also from New South Wales, nobody from NSW should be travelling to those hot spots at this present time," Ms Berejiklian said.
"Melbourne is a discretion. We would recommend people not at this stage travel to Melbourne unless they have to. We said from the beginning - once you start easing restrictions, we will expect case numbers to go up.
"But it's a question of how you monitor them, how you clamp down on them, how you make sure that people are coming forward to get tested."
The hotspots have been defined as Hume, Casey, Brimbank, Moreland, Cardinia and Darebin.
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People who live in those areas have been advised not to travel regionally or interstate even if they don't have any symptoms. According to the ABC, the coronavirus cases from those six areas make up 83 percent of Australia's new cases over the past seven days.
The nation's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said: "School holidays are coming up so if you live in one of those areas, we don't want you to fly to visit your family in Sydney or to go to country Victoria and potentially spread the virus.
"If you are coming from interstate and you have family in one of those areas, we would prefer you not to come and visit that area and potentially take the virus back [to a regional area]."
Professor Murphy was confident Victoria would be able to get on top of the new cases but only if everyone heeds the advice.
Featured Image Credit: Gladys Berejiklian/Twitter