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Sydney is facing five months in lockdown, Victoria's Chief Health Officer has indicated.
Speaking at the daily press conference on Monday, Brett Sutton said the current Melbourne lockdown had "dragged on much longer than any of us would have liked"
"But the prospect in Sydney at the moment is another three months, on top of two months for some people in the south-west and west of Sydney," he said.
"Five months, now Victoria didn't go five months we went four months and that was an eternity, we don't want the prospect of this going on and on and on.
"So the hard choices now, for a very tough fortnight ahead, is to have that outlet available to us through September, October, November, and beyond."
PREVIOUSLY
A curfew will be introduced in Greater Melbourne as Victoria struggles to control its COVID outbreak.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the the Melbourne lockdown would be extended for two weeks and a curfew would be implemented in Melbourne.
Mr Andrews said the changes apply to Greater Melbourne.
Regional Victoria will not be subject to the curfew or lockdown extension.
Mr Andrews said he wants to avoid the situation NSW is currently facing.
"I don't want us to finish up like Sydney where it's fundamentally got away from them," he said.
"They're not reopening anytime soon. They're locked in until they pretty much get the whole place vaccinated, that's going to take months."
CHO Brett Sutton said the state was 'on the brink'.
The curfew will force residents to stay home from 9pm to 5am and will be enforced by police. Some exemptions exist.
Essential workers will need permits as they did in 2020.
Mr Andrews has been joined at his daily briefing by Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, COVID Commander Jerone Weimar and Police Commissioner Shane Patton.
It comes as Victoria recorded 22 new cases of COVID-19, of which only 14 were in isolation throughout their infectious period.
Eight were in the community while infectious.
Six cases are in hospital and one in ICU.
IN OTHER NEWS:
NSW has recorded 478 new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19, setting a new record.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the case numbers were 'disturbingly high'.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said Greater Sydney's lockdown has "absolutely worked".
"If we did not have the restrictions on our movements we would have seen escalating case numbers," Dr Kerry Chant said.
ACT have extended their lockdown by two weeks after recording 19 new cases of COVID.
While Greater Darwin and Katherine will lockdown for 72-hours after one case of COVID was detected.
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