Melbourne goes back into lockdown
The lockdown will go into effect starting from 11:59 pm local time on 8 July.
It's why based on the advice of the Chief Health Officer and across metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, Stage 3 "Stay at Home" restrictions will be reinstated from 11:59pm on Wednesday 8 July.
For six weeks, and if you live in these areas, there'll be only four reasons to leave your home:
Shopping for food and essential items. Care and caregiving. Daily exercise. Work and study - if you can't do it from home.
Otherwise: Stay home. Stay home. Stay home. In case it needs repeating, stay home. We are fighting a global and deadly pandemic.
This Stay at Home direction will apply to your principal place of residence - that means no escaping to holiday homes.
And because we need to limit the spread of the virus across our state, there will only be three reasons to cross the border of these metropolitan areas: Shopping for food and essential items. Care and caregiving. Work and study - if you can't do it from home.
The full announcement can be found here.
On the front of things, authorities are painting it more as a "stay at home" order but it is essentially the same thing as a lockdown in general. There will be no allowance to head out for leisure activities during this period.
The aussie is keeping somewhat stable with AUD/USD at 0.6972 currently but just be mindful that this does bite at the projected recovery in Australia's economy with Victoria being the second-most populous state in the country.
Credit to Eamonn for getting to the story a couple of minutes before the major newswires.
Update: This is weighing a bit more on the aussie now as it gets a wider airing, AUD/USD down to 0.6963 currently.