Premier Daniel Andrews urges Victorians to get COVID-19 vaccine

It comes as Australia looks to be on the verge of a national coronavirus outbreak as the highly contagious Delta strain sweeps the country.

There are new cases in four states and territories and lockdowns or tight restrictions have been imposed in three capital cities.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called a meeting of the national security committee of federal cabinet to discuss the outbreaks.

The premier took aim at the federal government for vaccine supply issues during the Melbourne press conference on Monday morning.

"I've had my first Pfizer shot and I'll have my second one very soon," he said.

"No-one can be happy with the way this vaccine has been rolled out. We've got supply problems.

"We say this from a position of strength - we have done more (vaccines) than any other state.

"But no-one can be happy that we have so few people vaccinated.

"Get vaccinated - that's the way we deal with the Delta variant, that's how we get out of lockdowns and that's how we get back to normal."

Premier Andrews reminded the Victorian community of the highly infectious nature of the Delta variant.

"This Delta variant, as Gladys Berejiklian has made very clear and I'll make clear again today - it's twice as infectious, it moves rapidly," he said.

"By the time you get to a person who's a case, who's tested positive, they've already infected all their family and, indeed, other people."

There were 114,000 vaccines delivered to Victorian state clinics last week.

More than 2.1 million vaccinations have been delivered across state clinics and GP clinics in Victoria since the start of the vaccine program.

Over 190,000 people have completed both doses of Pfizer.

Of the 45 active cases in Victoria, 17 were locally acquired and 28 were from overseas.

Fifteen cases of the Delta variant of concern have more than 1500 primary close contacts associated with them.

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Victoria has ramped up its border restrictions on the first day of the school holidays.

As Sydney and Darwin experience coronavirus outbreaks, the Victorian government has labelled these cities as 'red zones'.

The majority of NSW, Perth and Brisbane have been labelled as 'orange zones'.

Local government areas have been excluded from the new restrictions and remain in the 'green zone'.

Explore the restrictions map here.

Victoria's Chief Commissioner of Police Shane Patton, Minister for Health Martin Foley and COVID-19 Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar gave a virus update at midday on Monday.

"This is the first time that Victoria has had orange and red zones in most Australian states and territories," Minister Foley said.

"Nothing describes the seriousness that the nation is facing more than those extents of border restrictions and permit applications that Victoria has in place.

"We sympathise extremely much with Victorians who want to stay connected to family interstate, but we cannot take this invisible threat lightly, and we cannot take chances with the Delta variant, in particular, spreading across our state."

Victorian residents coming back to the state from the red and orange zones will need to quarantine for 14 days and get tested.

Those living in Victoria and NSW border communities will continue to be able to access the 'border bubble' by using their driver licence to prove their residential address.

Victoria Police has today furthered bolstered its Operation Sentinel response due to the evolving nature of the coronavirus outbreak in New South Wales.

From today, Airwing helicopters will be performing daily patrols of the Hume Highway to identify any suspect vehicles that need to be intercepted, while fixed wing aircraft will also be patrolling the length of the border from mid-week.

Police Commissioner Shane Patton said police resources will be ramped up to enforce the border restrictions.

"From here on in, you're going to see a much stricter enforcement," he said.

"People have had ample education, they've had ample warnings, and everybody knows now that they need to be authorised to come into Victoria."

Anyone in breach of border rules will be fined $4957.

On Friday, it was announced that 260 additional police officers would be dedicated to roving border patrols, pop up checkpoints, spot checks and intercepts to identify vehicles who may have travelled from NSW, including those who may have been in a red zone.

No local COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Victoria as the state shut its border to Darwin and tightened restrictions on Brisbane and Perth travellers.

Victoria confirmed zero locally acquired cases on Monday, with two in hotel quarantine.

The health department confirmed 17,617 tests were processed in the 24 hours to Monday morning, while 14,294 Victorians received a vaccine dose at one of the state-run hubs.

It comes as Greater Darwin - including Darwin, Palmerston and Litchfield - was designated a red zone under Victoria's travel permit system from 8pm on Sunday.

Non-Victorian residents who have been in a red zone cannot enter the state, while residents can obtain a permit to return and self-isolate for 14 days.

The concern is linked to a COVID-19 outbreak at a Northern Territory mine, which has sparked a 48-hour lockdown of Darwin and its surrounding areas.

About 400 fly-in, fly-out workers from Newmont's Granites Mine, about 540km northwest of Alice Springs, travelled in recent days to Brisbane and 250 flew to Perth.

That threat has prompted Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton to list Greater Brisbane, metropolitan Perth and its neighbouring Peel Region as orange zones from 1am on Monday.

Anyone coming from those areas can still enter Victoria with a permit, though must get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.

Greater Sydney and surrounding regions, as well as Greater Darwin, are the only current places declared "red zones" by Victoria.

Australian Associated Press

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