• Victoria’s COVID-19 lockdown will continue for at least another week, Acting Premier James Merlino announced Wednesday.
• Stay-at-home measures and business closures will continue past Thursday in the Greater Melbourne area, while restrictions will be amended across regional Victoria.
• The State Government also announce a new $209 million financial support package to support hard-hit industries through the extension.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Millions of Victorians will face lockdown conditions for at least another week, after public health experts deemed the state’s latest COVID-19 outbreak still poses too great a risk for restrictions to lift on Thursday.

Speaking in Melbourne on Wednesday, Acting Premier James Merlino said the lockdown measures, which were enacted last week and slated to end midnight Thursday, will be extended a further seven days.

The extension is necessary to combat “a variant of the virus that is quicker and more contagious than we have ever seen before,” Merlino said.

The five permitted reasons to leave the home — shopping for essential goods, authorised work and education, caregiving, exercise with a two-hour timeframe, and trips to get vaccinated — will remain, with minor tweaks.

From 11.59pm tomorrow night, Melbourne residents will be allowed to travel up to ten kilometres while shopping or exercising.

Face masks will remain mandatory anywhere outside of the home.

Essential businesses will remain open, while restaurants and cafes will be permitted to offer take-away options. Retail businesses can offer click-and-collect services.

Elsewhere, entertainment venues, community centres, beauty services, and hairdressers must remain closed.

From 11.59pm tomorrow, some changes will come into effect for regional Victoria.

“The five reasons to leave home will be removed and there will be no limit on the distance you can travel from home,” Merlino said.

“You can only travel to Melbourne for a permitted reason and you must follow Melbourne restrictions once you are there,” he added.

“Outdoor gathering limits can occur with up to 10 people.”

Food and hospitality venues will be allowed to open for seated service, accommodating a maximum of 50 guests while maintaining an occupancy density of one guest per four square metres.

Religious ceremonies in Victoria will be permitted with 50 worshipers and one faith leader, while wedding and funeral attendance limits will be lifted to 10 and 50, respectively.

“We can’t let it get away,” said Chief Health Officer Dr Brett Sutton.

“We can’t go to settings where it would move unchecked with huge numbers of people exposed.

“So we’ve got restrictions on for another week to limit the number of unique close contacts that people will have, and contain this virus as we did last year so successfully.”

Remarking on further lockdown periods, Sutton said he has “great confidence” restrictions could ease by the end of next week.

Victoria’s Health Department reported six new locally-acquired cases in the 24 hours to midnight Tuesday, bringing the state’s latest COVID-19 cluster to 60 people.

More than 51,000 COVID-19 test results were received over the same time period.

The number of public exposure sites has now swelled past 350, with health officials today listing new locations in Anglesea, south of Geelong.

Anyone who has visited a Tier 1 location at the times and dates listed must immediately seek COVID-19 testing and self-isolate for 14 days after their exposure.

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