Construction employees have been banned from travelling between regional Victoria and Melbourne after an authorised worker infected several people in Ballarat.
Premier Daniel Andrews said too many "seeding events" had occurred because of construction workers going back and forth.
"I know there will be significant impact from this but we've seen many seeding events and transmission events that relate to construction," Mr Andrews said.
"Ballarat is essentially one of those examples.
"From 11:59pm tomorrow night construction workers will no longer be able to cross back and forth over the metropolitan-regional boundary."
Mr Andrews also announced that construction workers will need show evidence of having their first dose of a vaccine from Friday next week.
"That industry needs to take this seriously and go and get vaccinated, go and get your first dose if you haven't already otherwise you will not be permitted to work," he said.
Cases, exposure sites grow
This comes as Ballarat's COVID cluster has grown to six after three new cases were reported today, including one infection that appears to have no links to existing cases.
There are now more than 15 exposure sites across Ballarat as the regional city enters its eighth lockdown, just six days after exiting its last lockdown.
COVID commander Jeroen Weimar said more exposure sites would be listed today as authorities interviewed the new cases.
One of the cases has been in the community for more than a week.
He said he understood the infectious person had no symptoms and had been unaware that he posed a risk to others.
Mr Weimar said he expected more exposure sites would be announced as authorities spoke with the man about his movements over the past nine days.
"We have probably about 50 to 60 primary close contacts that we know about at this point of time," he said.
"I expect that number to grow during the course of the day as we go through those exposure sites and pull out the QR details."
Information on exposure sites can be found on the Department of Health website.
10,000 vaccine doses, more testing sites
Three new testing sites have been opened today after some residents waited for more than seven hours in queues yesterday.
Authorities are bracing for another big day of testing, with cars lining up outside sites from early this morning.
But people are being urged to only come forward for testing if they have been to an exposure site, have been identified as a contact or have symptoms.
Information on testing site hours and the nearest site to you can be found on the Department of Health website.
Ballarat testing sites:
- Victoria Park Military Dr, Newington — Drive through, 9am-8pm
- Ballarat Aquatic & Lifestyle Centre Gillies St N, — Walk in 10am-5.30pm
- The Ballarat Sports Events Centre, 989 Norman St, Wendouree — Drive through 4pm-6pm
- Ballarat UFS testing centre, Ballarat Central — appointment only
- 4Cyte Pathology Ballarat COVID-19 Collections, Skipton Street, Redan — walk-in
- Pop-up at Marty Busch Reserve, Sebastopol — drive through 9-6pm
Mr Weimar also said more than 10,000 extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine were being sent to the Ballarat and Grampians region to help combat the outbreak.
The week-long stay-at-home-orders started at midnight, meaning Ballarat residents are now under the same restrictions as Metropolitan Melbourne except for a curfew.
People can only leave their home for five reasons: shopping for necessary goods and services, authorised work and study, care-giving or compassionate reasons, exercise, and getting vaccinated.
This comes as Greater Shepparton was released from lockdown overnight.
Concern for surrounding communities
While only the city of Ballarat is in lockdown, health authorities said people living in the surrounding areas needed to be "careful and cautious".
Grampians Public Health Unit medical director Rosemary Aldrich said she would not be surprised if cases appeared in outlying communities.
"While those communities are not strictly in lockdown, we're still asking people who live in those communities to be very careful and very cautious and very mindful of any interactions they might be having with anyone in the community, not only in Ballarat," she said.
"The alternative would be to lockdown other LGAs surrounding [Ballarat] which of course extend a long way away — 50 kilometres away."
She said permitted workers coming into Ballarat needed to be hyper-vigilant with social distancing, hand hygiene and mask-wearing, and to be aware of updates regarding exposure sites.
More exposure sites
There are now more than 15 exposure sites around Ballarat.
Two popular pharmacies and a brick cleaning business have been listed today, while three construction sites were listed overnight in the suburbs of Delacombe, Canadian and Winter Valley.
Clarendon College's Early Learning Centre was listed as a tier one exposure site late yesterday afternoon, a day after one of its students was reported as a positive case.
A supermarket, coffee shop and playground are also among some of the new exposure sites listed on the Department of Health's website.
Businesses close again
Gigi Malone, co-owner of the Royal Oak Hotel, said it was disappointing but not surprising that Ballarat was in lockdown again.
"It wasn't that surprising to be honest — we all heard the news circulating about cases popping up.
"It just means another week of our staff not able to come into work, another week of our local community not able to come in and see their friends, see their family, and another week for us as pub owners not able to open our doors."
She said they didn't have a chance to properly get back to business between the latest lockdowns.
"We all just have to do what we've been doing … keeping our heads down and just hoping that these seven days are it for us and we get to open our doors and have a smooth run at it."
