Victorian residents are now barred from entering the ACT unless they are granted an exemption, and ACT residents returning after 11:59pm last night must stay at home unless undertaking approved essential activities.
The announcement from ACT Health comes after the Victorian government yesterday announced a seven-day lockdown in a bid to curb the state's growing coronavirus outbreak.
The state's outbreak has now reached 26 cases, with 11 new cases recorded overnight.
Yesterday afternoon ACT Health announced restrictions in response to the outbreak in Victoria, including that ACT residents leaving the state after 11:59pm on May 27 will have to complete an online declaration form, travel directly to their residence and stay at home until at least 11:59pm on June 3, with the exception of undertaking exempt activities.
The ACT government's approved essential purposes for leaving home during the stay-at-home period are:
- to undertake essential work if they cannot work from home or remotely
- to shop for essentials like groceries, medicine and necessary supplies
- to attend to medical or health care needs including compassionate requirements, looking after the vulnerable
- to attend a facility to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, where the individual is eligible for a vaccination in the ACT, an appointment has been booked, and the individual is not in isolation or in quarantine
- to exercise outdoors, limited to one hour per day
- for essential animal welfare purposes (e.g. to feed pets or livestock that live elsewhere)
One person who visited an exposure site in quarantine
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said at least one person in the ACT had been identified as having visited a close contact exposure site in Victoria.
"If you have symptoms, get tested."
People already in the ACT who have been in Greater Melbourne in the past 14 days should have already completed an online declaration form via the ACT's COVID-19 website.
Anyone who visited a close contact exposure location should contact ACT Health on (02) 5124 6209 and get tested for COVID-19. They should then quarantine immediately for 14 days from the date they were last in the exposure location, even if they receive a negative test result.
People who have been to a casual contact exposure location should get tested as soon as possible and isolate until they get a negative test result.
Non-residents will not be able to enter the ACT from Victoria without an exemption after 11:59pm tonight.
ACT Health has also advised against travel to Victoria unless it is for essential reasons.
Whittlesea, Bendigo added to list of locations
In addition to announcing the restrictions, ACT Health also declared the city of Whittlesea as a COVID-19 place of concern, due to the possibility of undetected community transmission in the local government area.
Bendigo was also declared an area of risk alongside Greater Melbourne.
The ACT government said staff, visitors and volunteers who had been in Bendigo or Melbourne and who work in so-called high-risk settings in the territory should not return to work for 14 days since they were last in those areas.
High-risk settings include hospitals, residential aged care facilities, correctional facilities and residential accommodation facilities that support people who require frequent, close personal care and who are vulnerable to serious illness.
ACT Health said this also applied to home-based care providers.
Canberrans encouraged to continue getting vaccinated
More than 6,800 people in the ACT have completed the government's online declaration.
Ms Stephen-Smith said she hoped Victoria's outbreak would prompt more eligible Canberrans to get vaccinated.
"We continue to have the risk that cases will be brought into the ACT," she said.
"I think people will be starting to weigh up the benefit of getting the vaccine with the very small risk of an extremely rare side effect, which we also know what it looks like when it happens and how to treat it."
