Victoria records 22 cases of Covid overnight as state enters their first day of extended lockdown

Victoria has recorded 22 new local cases of Covid-19 overnight as the state enters its first day of an extended seven-day lockdown to stem the spread of the highly-contagious Delta variant. 

The state’s Department of Health said the new community cases were detected from 59,355 tests conducted statewide on Monday. 

The figures comes after a string of new venues were added to Victoria and New South Wales‘ growing list of exposure sites, with Covid outbreaks around the country sending more than 13 million into lockdown.

Among the venues in Victoria exposed to the virus include a warehouse, a popular Aldi and a busy coffee shop, while in NSW a popular Coffs Harbour pub is also affected. 

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday evening meanwhile shared an alarming map which showed how the virus had already spread to hundreds of exposure sites across the southern state.

The country town of Orange in regional NSW has also been thrown into a week long lockdown after the virus spread from a pet food driver making a delivery from Greater Sydney to a local.

Along with Orange, South Australians have been ordered to stay at home for seven days while in Victoria the state’s fifth lockdown has been extended for another week.

There seems to be no end in sight for Greater Sydney’s lockdown while there are also now fears of an outbreak in Queensland after a woman tested positive having arrived from Melbourne.

A string of new venues have been added to NSW and Victoria’s growing list of exposure sites while Covid outbreaks around the country send more than 13 million into lockdown (pictured pedestrians in Covid struck Liverpool in Sydney)

The Hoey Moey pub in Coffs Harbour (pictured) was exposed to Covid on Thursday July 15 between 3.55pm and 4.20pm, while initially only the bottle shop had been listed as an exposure site

The Aldi supermarket in Beaconsfield in Melbourne was also exposed to the virus and was added to Victoria’s swelling list of affected venues on Tuesday night

The Hoey Moey pub in Coffs Harbour was exposed to Covid on Thursday July 15 between 3.55pm and 4.20pm, while initially only the bottle shop had been listed as an exposure site.

Several other venues were added to NSW Health’s relentlessly growing list on Tuesday night, including two Woolworths stores, one in Sydney’s Belrose and another in Chester Hill.

The new exposure sites in Victoria come after the state recorded 13 new infections on Tuesday.

The BR International Logistics warehouse in Derrimut in Melbourne’s west, is believed to have been exposed by an infected resident all day for a week.

Those who attended the venue anytime from July 13 to July 19 must isolate for 14 days from the day they were exposed, regardless of a Covid-19 test result.

A woman is seen walking her dog in Melbourne on Tuesday. Victoria is in the midst of its fifth lockdown

The BR International Logistics warehouse in Derrimut in Melbourne’s west, is believed to have been exposed by an infected resident all day over a period of seven consecutive days

Pop-up cafe and arts store Status Quo Pop-up in Richmond was exposed by an infected resident over four days between July 14 and July 17.

Those at the store between 8am to 3pm on any of those days are required to get a Covid test and isolate until a negative result.

The Sloane Ranger cafe in Cremorne has also been listed on July 14 from 8:25am to 9:10am and July 15 from 8.25am to 9.05am.

Meanwhile the Aldi in Beaconsfield has been put on alert for shoppers who attended the supermarket on July 17 between 1:30pm and 3:00pm.

Victoria’s lockdown was scheduled to end at midnight but has been extended for another seven days until midnight July 27. 

Victoria’s lockdown was scheduled to end at midnight but has been extended for another seven days until midnight July 27 (pictured Melbourne residents wait to get a Covid vaccine)

The country town of Orange (pictured) has now been plunged into a seven-day lockdown

This is Victoria’s fifth lockdown since the pandemic hit Australia’s shores early last year and the third one so far in 2021.

‘We want to avoid a long, lengthy challenging lockdown where you lose control of cases, we have avoided that, but we need more time,’ Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said.

He also reinstated a hard border with NSW and ordered a temporary pause on the issuing of ‘red zone’ permits. 

Almost a third of Victoria’s locally-acquired coronavirus cases can be traced back to a fan who attended an AFL game, a Euro 2020 viewing party, and a rugby match while unknowingly infectious.

That man caught the virus from a resident of a Maribyrnong apartment complex who got it from unmasked Sydney removalists, then went on to spread it to friends and family.

Twelve of Tuesday’s cases are linked to the outbreaks of the Indian Delta variant in the state, which originated in NSW, and one case is under investigation.

There appears to be no end in sight for Sydney’s lockdown as the city enters its fourth week of tough restrictions (pictured, an eerily quiet George Street on Tuesday)

South Australia has also entered a seven day lockdown after a total of five infections were recorded (pictured, testing in Adelaide on Tuesday)

But an extra week of lockdown in Victoria is unlikely to be enough to quash an outbreak of the Indian Delta coronavirus variant, an epidemiologist says.

Based on modelling by Monash University and his own progression data, University of South Australia academic Adrian Esterman believes local Covid-19 cases will not drop to zero by the end of Victoria’s seven-day lockdown extension.

‘You’ve got at least another week and potentially two or three weeks,’ the veteran epidemiologist and biostatistician said.

USE DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA’S TRACKER TO FIND THE LATEST EXPOSURE SITES NEAR YOU 

‘It takes as long to get down as it does to take off. I’m expecting (Monash University) modelling forecasts of at least four weeks is probably correct.’

Meanwhile NSW is grappling with outbreaks of the virus in both Sydney and regional parts of the state.  

Around 50,000 people in Orange, Blayney, and the Cabonne Shire Council in the NSW Central West were plunged into lockdown as of midnight on Tuesday, enduring the same restrictions as Sydneysiders.

Along with millions of people in Greater Sydney, locals in the regional area will only be allowed to leave their homes for essential reasons in an attempt to quash the outbreak.

An extra week of lockdown in Victoria is unlikely to be enough to quash an outbreak of the Delta coronavirus variant, an epidemiologist says (pictured pedestrian in Melbourne)

The Covid-positive driver was delivering pet food from locked-down Greater Sydney to the Nestle Purina factory at Blayney, near Orange, where a worker now has the virus.

Major stores in the area including Officeworks, Woolworths and CTC in North Orange Shopping Centre, EG Fuelco Australia, and Pizza Hut have been put on the state’s list of Covid-19 exposure sites after being visited by the unknowingly infected local. 

Funerals in the affected areas will be limited to 10 people.

Masks must also be worn in all indoor settings and outdoors where social distancing cannot be maintained.

Meanwhile, Canterbury-Bankstown has become the new focus for health authorities trying to quash Sydney’s Covid-19 outbreak, which notched 78 new local cases on Tuesday and more severe hospitalisations.

At least 27 of the new cases uncovered to 8pm on Monday were in the community during their infectious period.

Health workers are seen swabbing Adelaide residents this week after a new Covid outbreak in the city

The three-day average for new cases has dropped to 85, leading Premier Gladys Berejiklian to declare: ‘We’ve stabilised the virus.’

NSW Health is now treating 95 cases in hospital, including 27 in intensive care. Eleven people are on ventilators.

‘You can deteriorate quite quickly with COVID,’ Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said.

‘We’re not dealing with a mild case of the flu, where you have pre-existing immunity.’

Pictured: Saeeda Akobi Jjou Stu, 54, who died on Monday

Tuesday’s numbers also included the death of Sydney mother Saeeda Akobi Jjou Stu, 54, who was found dead in her home she shared with her husband, daughter, twin sons Roni and Ramsin Shawka and their partners in Green Valley on Monday.

Her sons were last week charged with breaching Covid restrictions after allegedly travelling to regional NSW for removalist work while aware they had also tested positive. 

Neighbours said the beloved mum had only tested positive for the disease three days earlier and had barely shown any symptoms.

She’s the fifth death in Sydney’s latest outbreak. 

In Queensland, health officials fear a new coronavirus cluster may have been seeded by a woman who returned from Melbourne.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young is anxiously awaiting test results from relatives and friends of the woman, who picked up the highly contagious Indian Delta variant at a Melbourne pub.

She returned to Queensland on July 13 and stayed with friends on the Sunshine Coast but two days later was told by Victorian officials that she’d been at a tier-one exposure site – the Young & Jackson Hotel in Melbourne.

Dr Young said she presented for testing but returned a negative result, and was active in the community on the Sunshine Coast, and to a lesser degree in far north Queensland, while infectious.

The popular Rice Boi restaurant in Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast has also potentially been exposed

She returned a positive result late on Monday night, after flying north to Cairns and then travelling by private vehicle to her family’s home at Mareeba.

Dr Young is hopeful that the woman, aged in her 20s, may not have passed the variant on because she was fully vaccinated.

She also wore a mask while out and about on the Sunshine Coast, on public transport on the way to Brisbane airport, and on a Virgin flight VA791 from Brisbane to Cairns on July 16.

Dr Young says test results from the woman’s friends at Maroochydore and family at Mareeba will be a good indicator of whether Queensland is in trouble or not. 

She’s also worried about fellow diners at the popular Rice Boi restaurant at The Wharf, at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast, between 6.45pm and 8pm on Thursday, July 15, and shoppers at the Sunshine Coast Plaza shopping centre that day, between 3.55pm and 4.15pm.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young (pictured) is hopeful the latest positive case in Queensland may not have passed on the virus because she was fully vaccinated

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Meanwhile, Dr Young has announced all of South Australia will be declared a hotspot from 1am Thursday, after the southern state ordered a seven-day lockdown with five cases found there.

From that time, anyone who has been to South Australia won’t be allowed to enter Queensland unless they are a returning Queensland resident, or have essential purpose exemptions, and all arrivals will have to quarantine for 14 days. 

The entire state of SA was locked down as of 6pm on Tuesday with residents only allowed to leave their houses for five reasons.

These include for care and compassionate reasons, to exercise, for essential work, to get essential supplies, and for medical reasons.  

South Australians starting their seven-day lockdown will only be allowed to travel a maximum of 2.5km away from their homes to exercise.

The rule is one of the toughest to be imposed amid the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia, with exercise also limited to just 90 minutes each day.