Melbourne suburbs lockdown announced as the state struggles to get on top of Covid-19

Ten Victorian suburbs will be back in lockdown from midnight on Wednesday and international flights coming into Melbourne will be diverted to other states.

The Victorian Premier has confirmed the restrictions on Tuesday and Victoria will reimpose stage three restrictions on 10 postcodes across Melbourne until at least July 29 in a bid to contain an "unacceptably high" number of new cases detected in the past few days.

From midnight on Wednesday, residents in the following postcodes will be restricted from leaving the house except for essential purposes

• 3012 -Brooklyn, Kingsville, Maidstone, Tottenham, West Footscray
• 3021 -Albanvale, Kealba, Kings Park, St Albans
• 3032 - Ascot Vale, Highpoint City, Maribyrnong, Travancore
• 3038 - Keilor Downs, Keilor Lodge, Taylors Lakes, Watergardens
• 3042 - Airport West, Keilor Park, Niddrie
• 3046 - Glenroy, Hadfield, Oak Park
• 3047 - Broadmeadows, Dallas , Jacana
• 3055 - Brunswick south, Brunswick west, Moonee vale, Moreland west
• 3060 - Fawkner
• 3064 - Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Mickelham, Roxburgh Park, Kalkallo

This comes after the state recorded more than 220 cases in the past four days, including the fourth biggest spike since the start of the pandemic.

Andrews also said he asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to divert flights away from Melbourne and to other cities for the next two weeks.

The premier,  Daniel Andrews , said a number of Victoria’s cases through late May and early June had been linked through genomic testing to an infection control breach in the hotel quarantine program, prompting him to call for a judicial inquiry.

 “Clearly there has been a failure in the operation of this program,” Andrews said. “I have today ordered the establishment of an inquiry, led by a former judge, into the operation of the hotel quarantine program.

“We need every Victorian to play their part. Victoria police will not be mucking about. They will be there policing these rules. They will be there in booze bus-type arrangements on major corridors in and out of these postcodes and if people make a judgment that they can ignore the rules and there is a low chance of getting caught that would be a very unwise judgment to make.”

From a public health perspective, there are three key messages infectious disease experts are very keen to get across.

The first is to stay home if you are unwell. This cannot be stressed enough. As the premier said:

The number two priority is physical distancing — that means keeping more than 1.5 metres apart from other people  wherever possible.

And the third key message is: get tested. We know that, when asked, around a thousand Victorians have refused testing and this is really unhelpful. If you have any of the signs of COVID-19   such as cough, fever, sore throat or any of the symptoms  you should be getting tested.