Victoria’s Acting Chief Health Officer has declared the City of Greater Shepparton will enter a seven-day lockdown commencing at 11:59 pm tonight, Friday 1 October, with restrictions the same as those in metropolitan Melbourne (excluding the curfew).
Caseloads in Greater Shepparton have increased in recent days, with 24 active cases in this Local Government Area (LGA) as of 1 October.
The public health teams have significant concerns about onward transmission and have determined that the seven-day lockdown is needed to limit growth in cases, as it did in City of Ballarat, Greater Geelong and Surf Coast Shire.
Under lockdown restrictions, you can only leave home for limited reasons: necessary goods and services, caregiving or compassionate reasons (including medical care and getting a COVID-19 test), authorised work or permitted education, exercise and outdoor social interaction in limited groups, and getting a COVID-19 vaccine locally.
You can also leave home to visit your intimate partner or single social-bubble buddy. No other visitors are allowed in the home. Shopping, exercise and outdoor social interaction will be limited to 15 km from your home. Masks will be mandatory indoors and outdoors. Remember to wear masks on public transport.
You have four hours a day for exercise and outdoor social interaction. You can meet with one other person or, if everyone is fully vaccinated, up to five people from two households can meet up. Dependants can also join you.
You can’t leave the Greater Shepparton area and travel elsewhere in regional Victoria other than for limited reasons, such as authorised workac and permitted education, care and compassionate reasons, visiting an intimate partner, to get a COVID-19 test or to get necessary goods and services (only if they can’t be obtained locally).
Locals are asked to be on high alert for symptoms and get tested if any develop. Testing clinics open this weekend in Shepparton are located at GV Health (2 Graham Street) and the Shepparton Showgrounds. An additional testing clinic is also located at the Northern Oval in Kyabram.
More than 86 per cent of the Greater Shepparton population has had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 49 per cent has had two doses. In addition to our state clinics, local GPs and pharmacies are offering COVID-19 vaccinations.
You can leave the City of Greater Shepparton if you’re going to an adjacent LGA to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Visit the Australian Government Department of Health website to find a provider and make a booking.
For more information on the lockdown restrictions that will come into effect in the City of Greater Shepparton at 11:59 pm tonight, please visit How we live.
Quotes attributable to Professor Ben Cowie, Acting Chief Health Officer
“If you’re in the City of Greater Shepparton, please follow the lockdown restrictions, get tested if you have symptoms, and get vaccinated if you haven’t already.”
“We’ve just seen the Ballarat and Geelong communities get through an outbreak, so we know it can be done – it’s vital we protect the local community and the rest of regional Victoria from significant outbreaks.”
