Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria calls seven-day lockdown over Melbourne outbreak

Covid variant travelling at a super quick pace', acting premier James Merlino says, as Melbourne cases grow to 26. Follow the latest updates

• Record pace of Melbourne outbreak and delayed vaccine rollout blamed for lockdown
• Victoria to enter seven-day lockdown
• Victoria's Covid lockdown restrictions: new rules explained
• Victoria's Covid hotspots and exposure sites

9.24am BST

We're going to wind the blog down for the evening. Another big day, here are the main events:

8.47am BST

Via AAP:

Dozens of passengers have been booted off a train in outback South Australia after the Northern Territory closed its border to Melbourne and Bendigo.

The Ghan train from Adelaide to Darwin was forced to make a pit stop at Marla, 970km north-west of the SA capital, on Thursday.