Victoria enters seven-day Covid lockdown with masks mandatory, schools closed and travel banned

Officials say a week-long lockdown is needed because the coronavirus variant is spreading faster than contact tracers can keep up with

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Victoria is entering a seven-day lockdown as authorities work to contain a rapidly spreading Covid outbreak that the acting premier has warned is running faster than we have ever recorded".

The government hopes the restrictions - which start at midnight and include compulsory masks, school closures and a 5km travel limit for shopping and exercise - will act as a circuit-breaker after the state reported 11 new cases of the B1617.1 variant on Thursday taking the cluster to 26.