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Victoria has announced 191 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, meaning tougher containment measures – and possibly an entire statewide lockdown — are likely.
Premier Daniel Andrews is currently in a crisis meeting with his ministers and is expected to hold a press conference shortly.
Authorities have confirmed 191 new cases will be added to Victoria's spiralling coronavirus total when he steps up to face the media.
The Australian reports that new lockdown measures will "almost certainly" be announced today after a signficant nuber of new cases were detected outside Melbourne's lockdown zones.
Of Monday's cases, 44 per cent were in local government areas with no locked down postcodes, including 86 active cases in the LGA of Wyndham, in Melbourne's southwest.
The Herald Sun reports there is an increasing reluctance among sections of Melbourne's west and north western community to share information about where they have been and who their close contacts are.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said this morning that a state-wide lockdown is being considered in Victoria.
"At this stage, what we see is that the focus is the north and the west of Melbourne. "I don't think that anybody can rule out that (a state lockdown) if the disease continues to spread, there could be further restrictions. "I think it's very important to be open and honest about that. At this stage, again, it appears primarily urban Victoria.
"But we actually have to respond to the facts as they occur and we've always identified this notion of rings of containment, of isolating the hotspots and then working out from there."
Yesterday's tally of 127 cases was the highest daily increase since the pandemic began.
The previous peak was 111 cases on March 28, but back in March, just 21 cases with an unknown source had been identified, compared with 416 on Monday, including 145 in the past week alone.
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