August 10, 2021 | By Bronwen Largier
Regional Victoria came out of lockdown at midnight last night, after the State Government determined the latest outbreak in Melbourne had not spread beyond the city, while Byron Bay and Tamworth joined the growing number of regional NSW areas in lockdown.
NSW now has four regional areas in lockdown, alongside the whole of Greater Sydney, including the Central Coast, Wollongong, Shellharbour and the Blue Mountains.
Byron Bay and surrounding LGAs went into lockdown at 6pm last night for a week after a man from Sydney was active throughout the area before being diagnosed with COVID-19, and the Tamworth LGA went into lockdown at 5pm for seven days after a person from Newcastle travelled to the area while infectious.
The local government areas of Tamworth, Ballina, Byron, City of Lismore and Richmond Valley join the Armidale LGA and the nine LGAs around Newcastle in regional lockdown. Newcastle and surrounds are due to come out of lockdown on Friday morning if the outbreak there is contained, while Armidale is scheduled to end its lockdown on Sunday if all goes well.
The stay-at-home orders broadly mirror those imposed in Greater Sydney in areas where a tighter lockdown has not been mandated.