Victorias lockdown to end at midnight but home visits remain banned for two weeks

Victoria will end its lockdown as scheduled at 11.59pm AEST tonight, but some COVID-19 restrictions will remain in place.

Schools will reopen from tomorrow, but there will be no household visitors for the next two weeks.

Hospitality and retail businesses will reopen with density limits of one person per 4 square metres.

A capacity limit of 100 people inside and 300 outside will apply.

The announcement came as Victoria reported 10 new local COVID-19 cases.

All the new locally acquired cases announced on Tuesday have been linked to Victoria's current outbreaks and were in isolation for their entire infectious period.

There are now 190 infections linked to the outbreak, which originated from NSW.

More than 24,000 test results were received in the 24 hours to midnight on Tuesday, while 15,677 vaccine doses were administered at state-run sites during the same period.

When Victoria emerged from last month's lockdown, a number of strict restrictions were kept in place for two weeks, including a 25-kilometre travel rule, a ban on visitors at homes and strict density limits for hospitality, retail and offices.

Some businesses, including gyms and nightclubs, weren't able to reopen.

The statewide lockdown was called on 15 July and initially slated to run five days before it was extended to 11.59pm on Tuesday, as contact tracers struggled to chase down people before they tested positive.

The outbreak was seeded by a NSW removalist crew who passed the virus on to residents of Maribyrnong's Ariele Apartments and a separate family who returned from NSW.

Police have revealed the three-person removalist crew will not face any criminal charges despite not wearing masks on the job, in a breach of the worker permits.

"Victoria Police has undertaken an assessment of the material provided and determined there is no evidence of other offending," a spokesman said in a statement to AAP.

"As such, Victoria Police will not be taking any action and this matter is closed from a police perspective."

It followed the health department completing its investigation into the removalists who travelled to the state on 8 July before heading to South Australia.

With Biwa Kwan.

Share this post