Victoria’s Acting Chief Health Officer has declared Moorabool Shire will enter a seven-day lockdown commencing at 11:59pm tonight, Friday 1 October, with restrictions the same as those in the City of Latrobe, Mitchell Shire and metropolitan Melbourne (excluding the curfew).
Caseloads in Moorabool Shire have increased in recent days, with 32 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 the 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 15km 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 Moorabool Shire area and travel elsewhere in regional Victoria other than for limited reasons, such as authorised work and permitted education, care and compassionate reasons, visiting an intimate partner, to get a test and 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. Two new sites for testing are opening in Melton this weekend in addition to existing sites in Ballarat, Daylesford, Melton, Melton West, Redan and Sebastopol. You can also leave the Moorabool Shire if you’re going to an adjacent LGA to get a vaccine.
In the Moorabool Shire, more than 86 per cent of the population have had at least their first vaccination dose and more than 51 per cent have had both. In addition to our state clinics, local GP and pharmacies are offering COVID-19 vaccinations. Visit COVID-19 vaccines for links to state-run, pharmacy and GP booking systems.
For more information on the lockdown restrictions that will be in place in the Moorabool Shire at 11:59pm tonight, please visit How we live: metropolitan Melbourne and some areas of regional Victoria.
Quotes attributable to Professor Ben Cowie, Acting Chief Health Officer
“If you’re in the Moorabool Shire, 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.”
