Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews Confirms State-Wide Lockdown Will End Tonight

Daniel Andrews has confirmed Victoria's state-wide lockdown will end tonight.

The Victorian Premier announced last Friday (February 13) that the state would be plunged into a five-day Stage 4 lockdown to prevent an outbreak from spreading in the community.

After managed to keep cases to nearly zero during the circuit breaker, Mr Andrews is confident the lockdown has worked.

"We've been able to contain this outbreak. I'm very proud of every single Victorian," he said.

Schools will go back to normal learning and masks will be required indoors and outdoors when people can't socially distance.

Only five people will be allowed inside someone's home and outdoor gatherings will have a maximum capacity of 20 people.

Offices will be allowed to have 50 per cent capacity and restaurants, cafes and pubs have been given the green light to reopen but will have individual caps on crowd sizes.

Mr Andrews said while the immediate danger has seemingly been overcome, there is still a threat to the community.

"We are very well placed. The issue is not over and the virus is not gone," he said.

The lockdown was in response to an outbreak at the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn, with several cases having the UK-mutation of the coronavirus.

Hundreds of people were put on alert and told they could be close contacts of the people who tested positive.

Victorians turned out in their droves to get tested after the lockdown was introduced to ensure authorities had the best picture of how bad the outbreak was.

Even though the immediate threat is over, health officials still want people to get tested if they have symptoms.

Department of Health testing commander Jeroen Weimar said: "We will continue our testing drive. We need people to keep coming forward to get tested today and over the next few days.

"We need to continue to be vigilant. We have a lot to do over the next nine or 10 days to close down this outbreak."

The state-wide lockdown will end at midnight tonight, with the state reopening on February 18.

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie